Teenager Sk Reezaal Arafat Leads Student Guardians to Predict Crop Fires Using AI in West Bengal

Sixteen-year-old Sk Reezaal Arafat from Medinipur, West Bengal, ignited a climate-tech initiative called SATARK in December 2025 after witnessing ash from crop burning near his home. He discovered that farmers in his district were resorting to burning crop waste due to the high cost of manual clearing (around Rs 600 per bigha) and tight planting schedules, a problem he realized existing detection systems addressed too late.

Reezaal now leads a team primarily composed of student volunteers aged 15 to 18, supported by a network of over 30 ‘Student Guardians’. SATARK's core mission is to proactively identify areas where crop waste is likely to be burned, enabling authorities to intervene with alternatives before fires are set and smoke impacts nearby communities.

The SATARK system combines satellite information with ground-level data through two main components. It utilizes a network of small, low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) devices, or 'sentry nodes', to gather local weather conditions like wind direction and moisture. A 'smart burning windows' prediction model then uses satellite images, crop data (including NDVI for crop greenness), and weather forecasts to pinpoint fields nearing harvest and assess the risk of pollution if burning occurs.

Crucially, SATARK adopts a community-first approach, guided by mentors like Dr Daniel Aldrich, by focusing on 'positive deviants' – farmers who manage not to burn their fields despite similar constraints. Academic mentors from institutions including Columbia University, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, and IIIT Sri City have also supported the project. The initiative has established links with several local schools, forming a student network for field observations and community engagement.

By June 2026, SATARK had directly engaged with 37 farming families across eight villages, documenting nine different methods farmers use to manage paddy residue without burning. The team builds trust by listening to farmers' challenges and provides data-driven insights, such as soil reports, to demonstrate the long-term impacts of burning on soil health and yields. Reezaal emphasizes that the hardest part is ensuring practical alternatives are accessible to farmers who choose not to burn.

Why it matters: This student-led initiative offers a proactive, data-driven, and community-centric model for tackling agricultural pollution and promoting sustainable farming practices.

Editor's note: Excellent summary that captures the technical, social, and academic components of the SATARK initiative while remaining faithful to the source.