SRINAGAR: The Agriculture Department Kashmir has strongly refuted a news item about mustard stubble burning incidents along the National Highway in Pulwama, terming it baseless and without merit.
In an official handout issued here, it has been clarified that most of the mustard stubble is actually used as mulch—a common practice that improves soil fertility, conserves moisture, and suppresses weed growth. This practice is both eco-friendly and agriculturally beneficial, not detrimental.
Furthermore, field-level officers of the Agriculture Department have been regularly engaging with farmers and actively educating them about the environmental and agronomic benefits of mulching, while discouraging any burning practices.
Divulging further details, the handout reveals that the instances of stubble burning are isolated and insignificant in scale, and no such major activity has been carried out along the National Highway in Pulwama.
This rebuttal follows a news item published in a local English daily with the headline, “Mustard stubble burning turns Kashmir highway into a smoke corridor.”
The said news item, which repeats the phrase “Mustard stubble burning turns Kashmir highway into a smoke corridor,” paints an alarmist picture that does not accurately reflect the on-ground reality of Kashmir’s agricultural practices, the handout reads.
Contradicting the claims made in the article, the official statement clarifies that no widespread smoke corridors or visibility hazards have been reported or observed, nor has there been any surge in respiratory complaints specifically attributed to mustard stubble burning.
“Linking a few localized burning incidents to broader COPD statistics without robust data is scientifically tenuous,” the statement notes.
The department remains committed to promoting environmentally friendly methods for the disposal of agricultural waste, and many of the recommendations provided in the article are already being implemented on the ground.
