50,000 cases of stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana this kharif season
Of more than 12,000 cases in Haryana, 236 FIRs lodged, environment ministry tells Parliament
: Punjab and Haryana reported 42,337 and 12,606 cases of cropburningrespectivelyduring the kharif season this year, the environment ministry said in Parliament on Monday.
Of more than 12,000 cases in Haryana, 236 FIRs were lodged and about ₹40 lakh collected in fine in 1,493 cases.
The kharif season lasts from July to October. Farmers burn residue from the kharif crop to clear the fields in preparation for the Rabi season. Every year Punjab and Haryana produce an estimated 30 million tonnes of paddy straw.
A dramatic rise in crop burning in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh in October-end contributed to the air quality in the IndoGangetic belt falling sharply in November including in the National Capital.
The environment ministry said in another written submission that as part of the Clean Air Initiative of CII-NITI Aayog, a task force headed by the additional secretary of the ministry, had been set up to look into the problem. The task force has submitted an ‘action plan for biomass management.’
Measures to check crop burning include technologies that tackle the problem on the ground by using farm implements like the happy seeder, straw management system, bio-char, prali-char.
The happy-seeder technology, that uses a tractor-mounted machines to remove rice straw and sows wheat into the soil, also spreads the straw over the sown area as mulch.
The Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (Aciar) has offered to help promote the technology in India, the Australian High Commission announced on Monday. “Happy seeder is a proven zerotillage solution -- seeds can be planted directly into stubble without the need for land clearing or tilling -- eliminating the need to burn crop residues,” a spokesman of the Australian High Commission said in a statement.
The technology was developed by scientists and engineers at Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) and Australian engineers and scientists with support from ACIAR a decade ago.
The task force also recommended initiatives that help utilize the stubble elsewhere like biomass based power plants and mixing it with coal to meet thermal power plant requirements.
In 2015, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) banned the burning of crop residue in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab, recognising that they contribute to poor air quality in Delhi NCR. There has been vigorous pushback from farmers, who find themselves without a viable alternative to get rid of the crop residue from the kharif season.
The fine imposed by the state governments and financial incentives to stop the burning have not had any major impact this year.
THE TWO NEIGHBOURING STATES PRODUCE AN ESTIMATED 30 MILLION TONNES OF PADDY STRAW EVERY YEAR