Tamil Nadu: Smoke engulfs village after field set ablaze

The fire resulted in smoke engulfing several areas, with residents complaining of severe irritation to their eyes.
Cane stalk set on fire in Ponmar village off OMR in Kancheepuram district on Thursday | Express
Cane stalk set on fire in Ponmar village off OMR in Kancheepuram district on Thursday | Express

CHENNAI: Workers set fire to a patch from which sugarcane had been harvested in Ponmar off the Old Mamallapuram Road in Kancheepuram district in the early hours on Thursday. The fire resulted in smoke engulfing several areas, with residents complaining of severe irritation to their eyes.

According to official sources, a group set fire to the cane stalk and dry leaves around 1 am. As the patch of land was filled with the dry vegetation, the fire destroyed all of it in a very short span. No one was injured nor was there any damage to property, but residents living around the fields were severely affected.
According to sources in Ponmar, the smoke spread so far that it seemed as if the entire village came under a blanket of smoke. It took a couple of hours for the smoke to disappear.

A retired official of the Agriculture Department in Kancheepuram district said that it was a normal practice for landowners to set fire to dry stalk of crops soon after harvest. According to him, the farmers would want to immediately till the land and prepare it for the next cultivation of either the same crop or other vegetables with quick growth like spinach.

Many others would burn the sugarcane stalk, leaves and other dry vegetation as the ash would enrich the soil for the next cultivation. Moreover, the retired official said the burning would be done in such a manner as to ensure that the root and also the buds on the shoot below the ground are intact, which would automatically result in the growth of new crop - called ratoon farming.

Kancheepuram district administration sources said they were yet to receive any complaint about the incident. However, the local field officers would be making a spot inspection, they said.

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