With stubble burning up 400% this year, govt rushes to stem Delhi smog

New Delhi: With about two months to go for the annual ritual that leaves Delhi and its surroundings smothered in smog, the Union government is rushing to convince farmers—yet again—to avoid burning their post-harvest crop residue.

The beginning of this year’s stubble-burning season has already seen 124 farm fires in Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh from 15-23 September, significantly higher than the 25 recorded in the corresponding period last year, show data compiled by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute.

This has prompted the government to advance its paddy crop residue management efforts and its graded response action plan by a month to October, two officials said. It will implement these measures in collaboration with the the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and the Punjab and Haryana administrations.

Punjab and Haryana are major producers of rice, maize and other kharif crops that are grown during the monsoon season and harvested ahead of winter to make way for rabi crops such as wheat. After harvesting the kharif crops, farmers burn the remaining stubble to prepare the soil for cultivating winter crops—which adds a stubborn layer of smog to the heavy winter air and vehicular pollution across neighbouring states.

The air quality index (AQI) in Delhi was already at 235 on Wednesday evening, CPCB data showed, although it improved to 97 on Thursday evening. Air quality standards are slotted under six categories—good (0-50), satisfactory (51-100), moderate (101-200), poor (201-300), very poor (301-400) and severe (401-500).

The Union government’s plan involves distributing hundreds of thousands of machines to manage crop residue and establishing a farm residue biomass supply chain, among other efforts.

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“The reason behind advancing (these efforts) by a month this year is because we noticed that paddy harvests in Punjab and Haryana take place in October and farmers begin burning the stubble. Through advancement, we will be able to track active fire counts through satellites and create awareness among farmers for crop residue management,” one of the officials said.

“Similarly, GRAP will also be implemented one month earlier to control the movement of vehicles, and the stage will be decided based on AQI in Delhi NCR,” the official said.

GARP, or the graded response action plan, is a set of measures such as limiting vehicular movement and closing colleges and schools in the Delhi-National Capital Region to cope with peak pollution levels during winter.

In November last year, the government imposed level 4 of GARP in Delhi-NCR as air quality deteriorated to the ‘severe’ category. This year, the government plans to advance implementing the graded response action plan by a month to October, the two officials said. Both of them declined to be identified.

Spokespeople and secretaries of the Punjab and Haryana governments and the Union ministries of agriculture and environment, and the chairman of the Central Pollution Control Board, did not immediately reply to emailed queries.

A heavy cost to health and economy

Air pollution levels in India are among the highest in the world, posing a heavy threat to the country’s health and economy. All of India’s 1.4 billion people are exposed to unhealthy levels of ambient particulate matter (PM) 2.5—the most harmful pollutant. Exposure to PM 2.5 can cause deadly illnesses such as lung cancer, stroke, and heart disease.

The health impact of pollution also represent a heavy cost to the economy. Lost output from premature deaths and morbidity attributable to air pollution accounted for economic losses of $28.8 billion and $8 billion, respectively, in India in 2019, the World Bank said in a report published in June this year. This total loss of $36.8 billion was 1.36% of India’s gross domestic product in 2019.

Last month, the University of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute said in a report that the “average resident in India is likely to lose 3.4 years of life expectancy if pollution levels persist”.

“Monitoring will be stricter this year with local agencies under CPCB having power to act against non-compliant rules and regulations,” the second official cited above said.

This comes after a high-level task force on Monday assessed the readiness of stakeholders in addressing the issue ofdeteriorating air quality in Delhi-NCR as winter approaches.

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The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) estimates 19.52 million tonnes of paddy straw to be generated in Punjab and 8.1 million tonnes in Haryana in the 2024-25 kharif season (April-September).

Both states aim at managing a combined 14.8 million tonnes of their paddy straw through crop residue management on site and the rest externally. Over 150,000 crop residue management machines will be available in Punjab and 90,945 machines in Haryana.

Additionally, 2 million tonnes of paddy straw will be co-fired in 11 thermal power plants across the national capital region.

The initiative also aims to establish a farm residue biomass supply chain—from farmers to power generation units, compressed biogas plants, and 2G ethanol factories.

“While many effective measures are proposed as part of the comprehensive plan to control air pollution during the winter season in Delhi, which shows the city’s seriousness about tackling this yearly problem, their effectiveness will depend on how well they are enforced on the ground,” said Abhishek Kar, senior programme lead, Council on Energy, Environment and Water.

“For example, though there is a ban on firecrackers, like last year, we need to see how much citizens comply with it and to what extent can authorities enforce the ban.”

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