Chiang Mai and surrounding areas have made the news with complaints of hazy skies, and dangerously high particle levels in the air. This year again (the period of the year when it occurs seems to be between January - April) air pollution levels remained poor for many weeks. The reason is burning waste of farm crops to prepare it for planting cropsto be used for alternative fuel production. 2015 shows the same problem persisting. Small particles pollution levels are elevated in some northern provinces. This problem has been there for many years now, but there seems to be no relevant action taken against waste burning.