Agricultural fires in full swing in the Punjab region of India.
The Punjab province in India has even more fires brewing than it did last week. Last week’s image showed a large amount of fires in the area, but this week’s taken by the VIIRS instrument on Suomi NPP on November 01, 2016, shows at least twice as many fires in the same area. Red outlines show the approximate locations of active burning. This type of “slash and burn” agriculture is done by the farmers in order to clear out pests that eat crops and turning crop residues from the previous season into fertilizing ash.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC. Caption by Lynn Jenner.