JEYPORE: The menace of stubble burning that had left Delhi and North India choking in smog has raised its ugly head in Koraput district.
With farmers increasingly resorting to the hazardous practice, environmentalists have sought intervention of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board to take immediate action.
Farmers in Jeypore, Kundra, Boipariguda, Borrigumma and Kotpad had cultivated 50,000 acre of paddy in the kharif season and the crops were harvested in November.
Traditionally, farmers used to bring their dry paddy stalks to threshing grounds for separating grains and the straw was used for repair of thatched roofs, as cattle fodder or for making manure.
However, after the advent of threshing machines, the straw heaps are left in the fields after processing of grains.
As the rabi crop season is about to begin, farmers are now resorting to setting fire to the straw heaps instead of using them for traditional purposes.
It has become convenient and cheaper for them to burn the straw on the fields instead of incurring expenses towards transporting from the farm field to threshing ground, they said.
A farmer of Jeypore block, Anant Nayak said non-availability of farm labourers has forced them to use machines for crop cutting and threshing in the fields. Later, they dump the paddy stalks on the crop fields for burning, he added.
The smoke billowing out of heaps of straw poses is leading to air pollution in the region, said, environmentalists.
Official sources said higher authorities of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board have been apprised of the matter.