Delhi Pollution: Crores allocated but winter smog from stubble burning continued

By: Yash Gupte

The central government had launched a scheme ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi’ in 2018-19.

The annual practice of stubble burning which is considered as one of the major contributors of air pollution in the northern part of the country is reported every year in the states of Punjab and Haryana. The central government had launched a scheme ‘Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization for In-Situ Management of Crop Residue in the States of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi’ in 2018-19. The scheme was launched to support the efforts of the Governments of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi to address air pollution and to subsidize machinery required for in-situ management of crop residue.

In accordance with the scheme, financial assistance of 80 percent of the project cost is given to cooperative societies of farmers and Farmers Producers organisations (FPOs), and panchayats in order to establish Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) for crop residue management machinery. Financial assistance totaling 50 percent of the cost of machinery is given to farmers under this scheme for the purchase of crop residue management equipment.

Taking into consideration the central sector scheme for addressing the problem of stubble burning, India Tracker takes a look at the number of instances of stubble burning in last few years and its contribution to the air pollution during winter in Delhi-NCR.

According to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), the peak season of stubble burning commences from the first week of the October when there is a complete withdrawal of monsoon from the states of Punjab and Haryana. During this period, the farmers are in a hurry to harvest the paddy crop in order to sow the Rabi crops. Paddy harvesting starts early in Majha area, which comprises Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Pathankot and Gurdaspur districts. The stubble burning season usually begins around mid-September and continues till 15^th November. However, the instances of stubble burning begin to fall by late November, the practice continues in eastern part of Uttar Pradesh till late December. According to the experts, the highest peak of stubble burning is recorded in November when the number of burning instances per day are reported from 5000 to 6000.

The chart below shows the instances of stubble burning from 2016 to 2021 in the states of Punjab and Haryana.

Source: Council on Energy, Environment and Water

Maximum number of stubble burning incidents were reported in 2016. Around 1,08,298 stubble burning instances were reported from Punjab and Haryana in 2016. The National Policy for Management of Crop Residues (NPMCR, 2014) started by the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, to reduce crop residue burning and prevent environmental degradation, places a strong emphasis on advancing in situ crop residue management, technology intervention, crop diversification, capacity building, farmer awareness, and the creation and execution of related regulations. Following a ruling by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), India was given the go-ahead to strictly enforce the NPMCR and outlaw the open burning of crop residue in agricultural lands. Nevertheless, despite a regulatory and legal framework, 2016 saw the most crop residue burning incidents recorded.

The period from 2017-2019 witnessed a drop in number of stubble burning instances as the state governments imposed heavy fines on farmers and initiated campaigns aimed at generating awareness among the farmers. But, the year 2020 witnessed a rise in instances as the number went up to 79,518 from 54,000 in the previous year. The reason behind the rise was attributed to the inflow of migrant workers to their hometowns in the wake of covid-19 pandemic. Many migrant workers lost their jobs due to the pandemic and this forced them to work in the field in their villages. The instances of stubble burning further increased to 86,296 in 2021.

The instances of stubble burning continue to rise in spite of the schemes implemented by the state governments and the central government. During the period from 2018-19 to 2022-23, funds worth Rs. 3,138.17 crores have been released for the states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi NCT and more than 39,000 CHCs have been established and more than 2.30 lakh crop residue management machines have been supplied to these CHCs and individual farmers of these four States. But in spite of such measures, the stubble burning continues to choke the national capital.

The state of Haryana is the only exception as the state government in Haryana has been providing subsidies up to 80% for buying new rotobeater machines to farmers which would chop it instead of burning the stubble. While Punjab also provided subsidies, many farmers alleged that the amount wasn’t paid on time. According to a report of Indian Express, the private contractors in Karnal, Haryana provide balers, a machine used to compress crop residue into compact bales, free of cost to the farmers.

Source: Council on Energy, Environment and Water

Stubble burning or waste burning is the largest contributor of pollution in Delhi from 15^th October to 15^th November which is the peak period of stubble burning in the states of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Dust remains the second largest contributor during this period. Later, in the period between 15^th November to 15^th December, stubble burning, and dust and household heating & cooking contributed equally to the PM 2.5 pollution in Delhi. Household heating and cooking contributed maximum (32%) to the pollution in the capital.

Stubble burning has a lot of hazardous effects on the environment. Pollution is the major result of the practice. It also affects the soil fertility as one centimeter of soil is heated by burning paddy straw, raising the soil's temperature to 33.8 to 42.2 degrees Celsius. This affects the nutrients and bacteria in the soil.

Data shows that stubble burning is the major contributor of pollution in Delhi and surrounding areas and needs to be addressed in an effective manner in the earliest. The central and the state governments need to work hand in hand with a spirit of cooperative federalism and take major steps towards addressing the issue of stubble burning in northern India.