Supreme Court ordered 24x7 data on stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana after farmers started timing the crop burning with the overpass of NASA satellites over the region, a problem first highlighted by NDTV two weeks ago.
The Supreme Court said the situation must be continuously monitored since farmers are burning their crops after 1:30 pm, the overpass time of NASA satellites over the subcontinent. This led to a severe undercount of crop burning data, especially in Punjab, while the Centre of Air Quality Management (CAQM) said there had been a 70 per cent reduction in numbers.