Amid worsening air quality in Delhi and neighbouring areas, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has updated air quality management rules on Thursday, doubling the penalty amount for stubble burning, effective immediately, under which farmers are required to pay an environmental compensation on the size of their land holdings. A notification to this effect came after the Supreme Court pulled up the government for ‘toothless environmental laws’ to curb Delhi’s deteriorating air quality every winter.

Under the new rules, farmers with less than two acres of land will face a fine of Rs 5,000. Those with between two and five acres will be fined Rs 10,000, while farmers with more than five acres of land will be penalised Rs 30,000 for engaging in stubble burning. The revised rules come into effect immediately.

Meanwhile, farmers’ leaders from Punjab have strongly condemned the Centre’s move of raising fines for stubble burning and asked why the government was not providing crop residue management machinery to them to check farm fires. Reacting to the union government’s move, farmers’ unions pointed out that farmers never want to set the crop residue on fire but they are forced to do so for want of required machinery.

They also asked why farmers were always being “targeted” for pollution, and asked the government about action taken against the industry for polluting the environment. Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) general secretary Sukhdev Singh Kokrikalan slammed the Centre for its “anti-farmer” move of increasing fine on farmers. “We strongly condemn this decision,” Kokrikalan said.

The ministry notified the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (Imposition, Collection and Utilisation of Environmental Compensation for Stubble Burning) Amendment Rules, 2024, for doubling of environmental compensation imposed against stubble burning. The amended rules were notified under the Commission for Air Quality Management in the National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021, and will come into effect immediately, without a draft being placed in the public domain for public consultation.

As many as 12,514 burning events were detected in the six states between September 15 and November 6, according to the satellite data monitored by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI). Majority of cases were reported from Punjab (5041), followed by Haryana (888), Uttar Pradesh (1544), Delhi (12), Rajasthan (1332) and Madhya Pradesh (3697). However, the number of fire counts in Punjab have dropped significantly from 19,463 reported last year to 5,041 this year.

The environmental compensation rates were first fixed by the National Green Tribunal’s principal bench in a November 2015 order. Taking cognisance of the contribution of stubble fires to Delhi-National Capital Region’s (NCR) air pollution, the NGT had ordered Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi-NCT governments to impose these penalties.

Besides amending the rules to double the penalties for burning farm stubble, the Ministry also notified the Environment Protection (Manner of Holding Inquiry and Imposition of Penalty) Rules, 2024. It laid down the process of filing complaints with pollution control boards, the Commission for Air Quality Management, and offices of the Union environment ministry.

It also laid out the process of holding an inquiry on complaints against environmental pollution and that of adjudicating such complaints. Stubble burning also contributes to it, along with rising levels of emissions from vehicles, industries and waste-burning in and around the National Capital. The government has been urging farmers to shift to more sustainable ways of managing the stubble, which has also significantly brought down the number of fire counts over the years.

According to a Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) analysis, the city experiences peak pollution from November 1 to 15 when the number of stubble-burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana increases. Major factors behind stubble burning include the paddy-wheat cropping system, cultivation of long-duration paddy varieties, mechanised harvesting that leaves standing crop stubble in the field, labour scarcity, and the lack of a viable market for crop residue.

Studies estimate that during peak burning periods, farm fires contribute up to 30 per cent of PM levels in the Delhi-NCR region and surrounding areas. However, according to senior environmentalist Sunita Narain, the episodic burning of crop residue by farmers in winter is not the primary concern for poor air quality in Delhi-NCR. Instead, the persistent and major sources of pollution within the city, including transport and industries, are more worrisome.