As if the Covid-19 pandemic wasn’t enough, residents in north India, including Delhi-NCR, could well be heading for winters far more polluted than in the last three years. Satellites have detected an almost five-fold increase in the number of crop residue burning instances in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in the first week of October in 2020 than during the corresponding period since 2017 to 2019.
According to the Agriculture Ministry, satellites detected 208 incidents of farm fires on just a single day, October 5. Of them, 163 were detected in Punjab, 30 in Haryana and 15 in UP.
Between October 1 and 5, 894 paddy crop residue burning events have already been detected as compared to 184 in 2019, 263 in 2018 and 652 in 2017. Punjab is leading in farm fires with 700 events, followed by 146 in Haryana and 48 in UP. The number of burning events was highest on October 5 in Punjab in the last 4 years.
According to the Ministry, in Punjab, burning/fire events were concentrated in Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Patiala, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Ludhiana, Sangrur and Fatehgarh Sahib districts. Last year, only 79 events of farm fires were detected between October 1 and 5 in Punjab. The number of farm fires was 117 in 2018. On October 5, total 163 farm fires were reported while 16 in 2019, 56 in 2018, 106 in 2017 and 95 in 2016. This is despite the fact that the Punjab Government had spent more funds than Haryana and UP in the past two years on trying to get farmers implement farm waste management practices. But farmers say they do not have any option but to burn.
In Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the burning events were scattered. As many as 86 farm fires events were detected in Haryana this year during the same period while 87 farm fires events were reported in 2019; 208 in 2018 and 100 in 20117. Most farm fires events were detected from Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind and Fatehabad districts.
In UP, most farm fires events were detected from Sitapur, Meerut, Aligarh, Bareilly, Ghazipur, Sambhal, Shamli and Saharanpur districts.
“A sharp increase in stubble burning was observed around Punjab, Haryana, and neighbouring border regions. Boundary layer wind direction is favorable for transport (of pollutants). It will start impacting Delhi in the coming days,” the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) said.
Officials said that wind directions have changed to north-westerly and this will cause pollution to Delhi-NCR. Stubble burning causes a smog-like situation in Delhi-NCR every year post autumn, creating a health hazard for its residents.
Interestingly, the Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to examine a suggestion that full Minimum Support Price (MSP) should be released to farmers only after a verification that they didn’t burn stubble. The court posted the matter for further hearing to October 16 after SG Tushar Mehta said the Centre would file a reply on the issue.”
Taking note of air pollution, the Prime Minister Office has held a high-level meeting with northern States to chalk out a policy and measures in advance to control stubble burning.
Despite a ban on stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, farmers continue to do so because of lack of financial incentives to switch over to environment-friendly farm waste management practices. Last year, Punjab produced around 20 million tonnes of paddy residue of which farmers burnt 9.8 million tonnes of it while the figures in Haryana stood at 7 million tonnes and 1.23 million tonnes respectively. State Governments were now providing 50 to 80 per cent subsidy to farmers and cooperative societies to buy modern farm equipment for in-situ management of paddy straw.