Tradition stokes pollution at ‘slash and burn’ festival

Dangerous fumes: Smoke rising from burning paddy stubble during a ‘slash and burn’ farming festival at Hseebu in Pekon township, Myanmar. — AFP

A CHARRED hillside is wreathed by flames, spewing ochre smoke that smothers out sunlight in an apocalyptic scene.

But the villagers who set it ablaze dance below in a ceremony celebrating the inferno as a moment of regeneration and hope.