On March 22, 2016 NASA revealed a picture of crop fires in India titled ‘First comes fire then comes crops in India’. This image released showed the regions of the country where ‘slash and burn’ type of agriculture is practiced.
According to About.com: "Slash and burn is a method of agriculture primarily used by tribal communities for subsistence farming (farming to survive).
Humans have practiced this method for about 12,000 years, ever since the transition known as the Neolithic Revolution, the time when humans stopped hunting and gathering and started to stay put and grow crops.
Today, between 200 and 500 million people, or up to 7% of the world’s population, uses slash and burn agriculture."
The places shown by red dots are the region in the country where this type of agriculture is practiced. Farmers use fire to get the nutrients back to soil. This clears the ground of unwanted plants. This fire helps the farmer enhance crops and grasses for pasture but the fire degrades the air quality of the region.
The smoke released by any type of fire (forest, brush, crop, structure, tires, waste or wood burning) has a mixture of particles and chemicals produced by incomplete burning of carbon-containing materials. All smoke contains carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter or soot and is hazardous to breathe.
The image is captured by the Suomi NPP satellite which detects dozens of fires burning zones across the world. NASA's Suomi NPP satellite collected this natural-color image using the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument.
NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team, GSFC
Originally published in NASA.gov by Lynn Jenner.