Delhi-NCR left gasping again as steps to check pollution find few takers

It’s that time of the year again when Diwali coincided with the rice harvesting process in several states across North India. Even as they celebrated the triumph of good over evil this year, farmers had to address the task of clearing their fields of stubble and prepare to sow wheat within a short time frame. The fastest way they consider to do this without raising input costs further is burning the rice straw.

The smoke lingers in the winter air and mixes with fog to form “smog”. A slight breeze blows them to the densely populated areas in Delhi NCR, and adjoining states. Every year, the smog chokes inhabitants – leading to several respiratory complications.

Despite the Union and state governments, NGOs and other private organisations offering alternatives and cash incentives, the ritual has continued. Though there has been some relief, there’s much more that needs to be done. The pollutant levels exhibited on billboards at prominent street corners of the National Capital remain at the “red” danger mark during this season.

The legislative route

Proposed legislations to control air quality have always been a bone of contention in such cases.

“We had asked the Centre to exempt farmers from the ambit of the proposed amendments in environment laws,” said farmer leader Hannan Mollah, adding: “there has been no updates in the last eight-nine months.”

Also read: Delhi’s air quality turns ‘very poor’ on Diwali night; firecracker ban flouted

Some farmers have defied a ban on burning rice straw or stubble-burning. “As a farmer leader, I’ve been asking tillers to resort to a proper process rather than set their fields on fire to get rid of the stubble. There are certain insects that are beneficial to crops. These too are destroyed in fire,” according to Guni Prakash Thakur, a farmer leader from Haryana.

Despite the efforts, farmers do not – in most cases, cannot – employ extra labour or spend money to clear the stubble before the next crop season. As it is, small farmers are victims of rising input costs and exploitation by middlemen. Thus, they prefer to burn rice straw to make their field ready for the next season on time.

“This exercise will render such fields infertile in the long run. I think there has been some realisation and that’s why the air quality is comparatively better this year after Diwali,” added Thakur.

However, according to the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), Delhi’s overall air quality was of very poor category on Diwali and will remain so during the next few days.

What Thakur may not have reflected is that Diwali was somewhat earlier this year, and the extreme impact of stubble burning may still be a couple of weeks away.

Party politics plays its part

A tug-of-war in state-Centre politics also plays its part in coming together to convince farmers against stubble burning. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) governments in Delhi and Punjab claimed that they had sought the Centre and the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) to help them offer Rs 2,500 per acre as cash incentive to farmers in Punjab for not burning the residue. The Centre, they maintain, refused to entertain the request.

The Punjab government initially offered Rs 2,500 – where the Centre was to share R. 1,500 – per acre to paddy growers. It later withdrew, blaming the Union government for not cooperating. According to the Directorate of Rice Development, Government of India, approximately 77.42 lakh acres of paddy acreage was reported in Punjab this season.

The Delhi government also back-tracked, putting the blame on the Centre, after offering a similar package. Meanwhile, in early October, CAQM ordered the implementation of Stage 1 of the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP) after Delhi’s 24-hour average AQI was recorded at 211 (poor) at 4 pm on October 5 (the day of Dussehra celebrations).

The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) had imposed a ban on the sale and use of firecrackers. The Delhi environment ministry had warned that use of firecrackers in the city on Diwali could attract a jail term of up to six months and a fine of Rs 200.

Not that it could deter the enthusiasts as was evident from the noise-level that day.

The issue has reached the Supreme Court with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from North-East Delhi, Manoj Tiwari, seeking intervention of the apex court, saying the last-minute ban is ‘arbitrary’ and that it will adversely affect many livelihoods.

What the data shows

Meanwhile, according to a survey on ‘Trends of Delhi’s air quality and stubble burning during the October-November period’, published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CERA), “the air quality deteriorates between the last week of October to mid-November”.

Also read: Delhi pollution: How GRAP initiative is set to tackle winter blues

The study by Manoj Kumar and Sunil Dahiya added, “The worsening air quality can be attributed to stubble burning for 15-20 days (between the last week of October and mid-November) and firecrackers around the Diwali festival celebrations in addition to the existing sources. The PM2.5 concentration during this period reached ~500 µg/m3 in the past few years, while PM10 was more than 700 µg/m3 on a 24-hour basis.”

Published on October 21, it stated, “Going by the trends, intensive stubble burning in farms is expected to increase in the following weeks, further increasing PM2.5 levels, which is around 110 µg/m3 already”. According to their findings, “…from the end of October to mid-November records the highest pollution concentrations during the October and November period.”

It further said, “Enabled by financial support and technological interventions from the CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) and state governments, the number of fire incidents have reduced slightly. However, stubble burning remains a significant contributor to Delhi’s unbreathable air in October and November.”

In another report, by the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR), the Air Quality Index (AQI) on the day of Diwali indicated ‘Very Poor’ air quality. “Fine particles (size < 2.5 mm) contribute ~ 55% to PM10,” it observed.

Regarding incidents of “fire counts/emissions” over the north-west region, it said to “have increased to ~ 1450 (on October 23) and its impact on Delhi’s air quality is likely to increase further (about 10 – 12 [er cent) due to favourable transport level wind flow from north-west direction”.

The ministry of earth sciences introduced SAFAR for greater metropolitan cities of India to provide location specific information on air quality in near real time and its forecast. The SAFAR system is developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, along with Earth System Science Organization.

The CERA study offered a few alternatives in its October report. It advised state agencies to take “immediate precautionary measures, including assisting farmers in better managing the straw generated from the year’s harvest. This needs to be on a war-footing basis as farmers need to clear the straw in the small window between harvesting padding and sowing wheat. Lack of government support towards small and marginalised farmers leaves them with no choice but to burn their stubble.

“To manage this annual crisis better, the government agencies must engage with farmers and advocate alternatives to stubble burning. Some interventions include promoting polyculture in farming, better minimum support price (MSP) for other crops, changing paddy sowing patterns and in-situ and ex-situ stubble management. These interventions also generate similar or even better profits for the farmer while significantly reducing stubble burning. Farmers should be given multiple options to reduce stubble burning as one solution can’t fit all, and different solutions work at different gradients in different geographic, socio-cultural and economic regions,” the report added.

Incentives on offer

Days before Diwali, on October 19, the Union Inter-Ministerial Meeting addressed the issue of crop residue management with the states. Chaired by the Union minister for agriculture and farmers welfare, Narendra Singh Tomar, it was attended by Union minister for environment, forest and climate change Bhupendra Yadav and Union minister for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying Parshottam Rupala.

Also watch: Do green firecrackers curb pollution?

State representatives were told that under the central Scheme on crop residue management, the Centre provides financial assistance to Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi to combat air pollution in the National Capital due to stubble burning. The Union government claimed to have “released” Rs 601.53 crore in the current year. This was in addition to about Rs 900 crore available with the states out of the amount given in the last four years.

The Union government asked the states to “ensure effective utilisation of 2.07 lakh” stubble management machines supplied by it over the last four years, along with 47,000 machines provided this year.

Also, according to the agriculture ministry, Pusa Decomposer, a microbial consortium of fungal species (both in liquid and capsule forms) developed by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has been found effective for rapid in-situ decomposition of paddy straw.

In 2021, the decomposer had reportedly been used in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi in around 5.7 lakh hectare area, it added. This area was equivalent to about 3.5 million tonnes of straw which was processed.

Incidents of fire

Punjab and Delhi governments have repeatedly questioned the Centre on the latter’s support and initiatives. The two chief ministers have held the Union government responsible for failing in implementing residue management programmes and processes. And the fire continues to burn.

Incidentally, 5,617 incidents of fire have been reported till October 24 this year by Punjab’s Crop Residue Burning (CRB) Information and Management System. Tarn Taran reported the highest number with 117, followed by Patiala (111) and Gurdaspur (106).

The active fire incidents due to paddy residue burning were monitored using satellite remote sensing, following protocols developed on the directions of the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas.

Also read: Infants, elderly, pregnant women face greater threat from air pollution: Report

The satellites detected 1,019 active fire incidents in the Punjab on October 24. In comparison, on the same day in 2020, 928 active fire events were observed in the state while it was zero in corresponding period in 2021.

Similar incidents have been reported from Haryana too. In the absence of lucrative incentives or state-assisted promotions to individual farmers, the menace is expected to recur each winter, every year.