Stubble Burning Causes Air Pollution in India

The field of a farm recently burnt, the fires started just minutes before Greenpeace team arrived at the scene. Smoke rises from the ashes of the crops. Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is a major cause of air pollution in North India.
It is the most economical way, for most farmers across the two states, of dealing with stubble to get their fields ready for the next crop.

Unique identifier: GP0STRGK4

Type: Image

Shoot date: 18/10/2017

Locations: Asia, Haryana, India

Credit line: © Saagnik Paul / Greenpeace

Size: 4902px × 1690px 3MB

Ranking: ★★★★ (E)

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Stubble Burning in Punjab and Haryana, India

Every year, around October, the farmers in Punjab and Haryana burn the stubble in their farms after the summer crops are harvested to prepare the land for the winter crops. This causes a massive surge in air pollution in the entire North Indian belt with peak levels of pollution in Delhi crossing 1000 μg/m3 during that period. While this is a serious health hazard for the citizens across these north indian states, crop burning is also a compulsion for the farmers to survive. With the advent of combine harvesters in Punjab/Haryana over the last decade or so, the stubble left behind on the fields are too big to be ploughed back into the soil. Given the short amount of time that they have between the harvesting of Paddy and sowing of wheat, the farmers are left with no other option but to burn the stubble to clear the land for the winter crops. Given the steep costs for all other alternatives, they are left with no other option but to burn the stubble on their fields, despite it being criminalized in the two states.

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