Stubble burning

“High altitude winds coming from north west are bringing in pollutants from stubble burning from Punjab and Haryana,” Gufran Beig, project director, Safar

In neighbouring Haryana, 1,138 cases of stubble burning were registered so far this year as against 1,800 in the last paddy harvest season.

State officials said they had used a mix of punitive action, awareness and incentives in the form of cash and subsidies on machinery to check the practice. “Rs 12.45 lakh has been recovered as fine from the farmers,” said S Narayanan, member secretary of the Haryana pollution control board (HPCB).

This comes at a time when the state governments are locked in a public blame-game over the pollution. “My office continuously trying to take time from CMS of Punjab n Haryana for me to meet the two CMS. Its an emergency,” Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Wednesday evening, after having written to the chief ministers of Punjab and Haryana for a meeting. Minutes later, Singh responded and passed the buck onto the Centre.

Punjab and Haryana have been criticised by the National Green Tribunal for not doing enough to arrest stubble burning after pollution in Delhi touched alarming levels on Tuesday. The environmental court has also asked the states to come up with a plan.

Outside the Capital as well, thick smog and low visibility have resulted in a rash of road accidents and ensured a lack of sun for three straight days now. Air quality has been declared “severe” – with an air quality index of above 400, four times worse than the healthy limit -across the region. Schools are closed in Punjab and Haryana

Officially, Punjab says the number of fire incidents is down 30% and 2338 farmers have been penalised but officials admit that a lasting solution to the practice that adds anywhere between 20% to 60% of Delhi’s pollution load is far away.

“Stubble burning trend had reduced. But it will stop only when a new solution is provided along with financial aid,” said Punjab pollution control board chief Kahan Singh Pannu.

Farmers across the northern India belt burn millions of tonnes of agricultural stubble every October, triggering heavy pollution in the national capital region. Cash-strapped farmers say burning is the only cost-effective measure before them Each tonne of crop residue releases around 3kg of particulate matter, 60 kg of CO, 1,460 kg of CO2, 199kg of ash and 2kg of SO2 – all poisonous gases with severe health hazards.

Additionally, cold weather conditions and low wind-speeds have prevented the smog from lifting.

“Due to negligible wind speed, this type of smog build-up is here to stay for more days,” said Prof Rajesh Dhankar, head of department of environmental sciences at Maharshi Dayanand University in Haryana.