Stubble burning on the rise in Punjab and Haryana; Delhi’s air quality dips

Stubble burning on the rise in Punjab and Haryana; Delhi’s air quality dips

Fire counts in Punjab, a proxy for stubble burning, have rapidly risen in the last week.

As many as 872 fire counts were reported from September 15 to October 13 in the State – a decline from the 1,230 reported for the same period last year and the lowest in five years. However, this is a sharp rise from the 300 reported as of October 7, according to a Monday bulletin from the CREAMS-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), which compiles satellite-derived data on stubble burning.

An official at the Union Environment Ministry told The Hindu, requesting anonymity, that while there was an “overall” decline in stubble burning in Punjab since 2020, there was likely to be a spike in the coming weeks. “The harvesting of the rice has started and the stubble is being collected. However, the thing to watch is if the farmers manage to sell the stubble to industries. If they don’t, the straw will likely end up as smoke,” he added.

In 2020, there were 3,611 instances of stubble burning in Punjab, say the CREAMS-IARI data. This dropped to 1,057 in 2021, and 987 in 2022 (as of October 13 in all these years). However, experience from previous years suggest that stubble burning in Punjab accelerates in the third week of October and remains elevated until mid-November.

On the other hand, neighbouring Haryana has so far seen the highest number of stubble-burning incidents (until October 13) since 2020. Already 468 instances have been reported, compared to 527 in 2020. Last year, 374 instances were reported as of this date.

This year, Uttar Pradesh saw the maximum instances of stubble burning in five years, with 398 counts reported so far. The previous high was 296, reported in 2020. Like in Punjab, these States too see a rise in fire counts beginning the third week of October.

On October 3, the Supreme Court slammed the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) – the nodal body meant to coordinate anti-pollution measures among States – for failing to control incidents of stubble burning, and said it had made “no effort” to implement the court’s direction to prevent such incidents. Prior to this, Punjab and Haryana had committed to “eliminate” stubble burning in 2024. Punjab is likely to generate 19.52 million tonne of paddy straw and Haryana 8.10 million tonne of straw this year after harvest.