Due to increasing cases of paddy crop residue burning in Punjab, the air pollution in northern India is likely to get poor in the coming days.  Between September 21st and 25th, at least 612 paddy crop residue burning incidents have been reported while only 215 such incidents were reported during this period last year. The maximum were incidents reported from Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Patiala.

Besides NASA satellites, the agencies are using eight satellites like Metop-1, Metop-2, Noaa-18, Noaa-19, Terra-1,  Aqua-1, S-NPP, and Drought TVD to capture the incidents of stubble burning in northern states. On the other hand, farmers have alleged that they do not have machinery to stop stubble burning.

As per the data compiled by Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space, Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), Punjab has reported 568 stubble burning incidents between September 26 and 18. Haryana has reported 31 incidents; Uttar Pradesh 12 and Delhi one incident so far. The data showed that incidents of paddy crop residue burning have increased since September 18.

Presently, Delhi and NCR’s air quality is moderate. If wind directions change from Punjab side to Delhi, the air pollution will be poorer. Currently, wind direction is from Punjab to Pakistan

According to IARI data, there were 61,332 instances of stubble-burning in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh between October and November, 2019. There were 75,532 instances in 2018, 88,948 in 2017 and 127,774 in 2016, according to data sourced from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

In late September and October each year, farmers mainly in Punjab and Haryana burn an estimated 35 million tons of crop waste from their paddy fields.

The Prime Minister’s Office recently held high level meetings in advance with concerned states to tackle this issue ahead of the stubble burning season. As per data, total funds of Rs 11,78.47 crore were provided in the year 2018-19 and  2019-20 to Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. In 2020-21, Rs 600 crore has been provided in the budget for the scheme and Rs 548.20 crore has been released to the states well before time to ensure they can take up the activities in advance.

Every winter, not just Delhi but also large parts of north India are frequently enveloped in a thick blanket of smog, caused by air pollution from vehicular and industrial emissions mixing with fog. The burning of post-harvest paddy stubble in the agricultural fields of Haryana and Punjab is often cited as a major cause of this unhealthy smog.

This year, health experts fear that the effects of COVID-19, which primarily causes respiratory problems, would be worsened by heightened air pollution due to smog and smoke from the annual stubble burning.

The burning of stubble emits large amounts of toxic pollutants like Methane, Carbon Monoxide and carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.