Fires have ravaged wheat crops over hundreds of acres in different parts of Sindh and Punjab, causing financial losses in terms of millions of rupees.
During the last two weeks, there have been several reports of wheat field fires. In Lodhran district alone, there were 30 incidents within two weeks, and Hafizabad had 17 instances within one week, resulting in the burning of about 300 acres of wheat.
Similar incidents in other regions, such as Sahiwal, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, and Shakargarh, also caused massive losses to crops through fire, inflicting enormous loss to the livelihoods of farmers.
A similar fire incident caused losses to wheat crops worth lakhs of rupees in Sindh’s Naushahro Feroze district.
Even though the reason for these fires is not pinpointed, officials say that normal reasons are burning residual wheat stubble, which may catch other standing crops afire. Even used lit cigarettes thrown by bystanders near the fields have also been cited as a reason.
Rescue officials also reported that in Shakargarh, a fire was ignited by fireworks lit by a wedding procession and engulfed a wheat field.
Source - https://minutemirror.com.pk
