As smog hangs over Lahore, Pakistan's new pollution squad races to douse stubble fires

Pakistani authorities are expanding a crackdown on illegal stubble burning to address the region's annual pollution crisis. To combat this, the government has formed a 750-member force consisting of 67 rapid-response units across major rice-growing districts, according to Silwat Saeed, chief of the Environment Protection and Climate Change Department in Punjab. This unit is the first of its kind in Pakistan dedicated to fighting pollution.

On Thursday, a new quick-response unit controlled a fire at a paddy field on the edge of Lahore within minutes, preventing further smoke from contributing to the city's haze. This follows a rating from the Swiss group IQAir, which described the air quality in the city as "very unhealthy" earlier this week.

While Punjab officials claim the campaign is working and satellites have detected less burned area in both India and Pakistan compared to historical averages, many locals in Pakistan report they struggle to notice improvements. The smog crisis is driven by a mix of industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust, construction dust, and the common practice of farmers setting rice residue alight after the October harvest.

Brief written by urgent.news from Al-Monitor, New Straits Times — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.