Delhi wheezes as stubble burning rises in Punjab; AAP, BJP play blame game

With close to two crore residents of Delhi facing a “health emergency,” the political blame game between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the Centre continues unabated. The city’s air quality index breached the “severe” and “hazardous” categories on Thursday. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal categorically claimed air pollution was a problem across all North Indian states and said if the BJP-led Centre could not find a solution, it should resign.

Speaking to The Federal, Vijay Kumar Soni, head of the Environment Monitoring and Research Centre at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said the air quality was likely to remain in “very poor” or “severe” category for the next couple of days, with no reduction in cases of farm fires in Punjab in sight.

Shocking AQI levels

In Delhi, the air quality was in the “very poor” category, as the 24-hour Air Quality Index (AQI) stood at 376. It was bad in other NCR cities, at 339 in Noida and 310 in Gurugram. An AQI of more than 400 indicates “severe” and can affect even healthy people.

According to the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting And Research (SAFAR), stubble burning accounted for 32 per cent of the PM2.5 pollution in the capital on Wednesday. Due to the wind pattern, the smoke from Punjab is travelling to Delhi and is the primary reason for Delhi’s deteriorating air quality.

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

There has been a surge in the number of patients coming to Delhi hospital OPDs as the city keeps inhaling poisonous air. Most patients are seeking treatment for eye, respiratory, and throat infections. More and more people are going to ICUs with chest infections and pneumonia.

Stubble burning in Punjab

Punjab on Wednesday recorded the highest number of single-day crop stubble-burning incidents of the season—3,634. Before this, the state had recorded 2,131 farm fires on Monday.

Between September 15 and November 2, Punjab has reported 21,480 stubble-burning incidents this year against 18,066 in 2021. In 2020, Punjab recorded a whopping 41,176 paddy residue-burning cases.

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

In the case of Haryana, there has been a decrease in the incidence of farm fires this year compared to the last. Haryana recorded 2,243 farm fires between September 15 and November 2 this year. It was 3,241 last year and 2,606 in 2020.

The delay in paddy harvesting

As north-west India received rain in the last week of September and another spell from October 7 to 12, paddy harvesting was delayed. It was picked up again in the second half of October.

Indian Agricultural Research Institute data shows that daily fire counts were low till October 20. However, it started picking up in October-end. On October 24, Punjab reported 1,019 fire incidents, and the number of farm fires per day was 2,067 on October 28.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai has sought public participation in handling pollution. He requested people to use carpools while going to work or work from home, if possible. These measures would ensure fewer vehicles on the road.

Also read: Delhiites working hard but still a long way to go: Kejriwal on Delhi pollution

He also appealed to people to avoid using coal and wood for cooking and provide electronic heaters for society guards. People of Delhi have also been asked to share photos of any ongoing construction work in the state on the Green app.

Blame on Punjab

Sharing the details, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Wednesday blamed the Punjab government for failing to use the Centre’s financial assistance of Rs 1,347 crore for crop management in the past five years.

In a series of tweets, Yadav shared some details on the farm episodes and noted how Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had failed to provide relief to farmers even in his own turf of Sangrur. The area reported a massive 139 per cent increase in farm fires this year compared to the corresponding period last year.

The minister said, “Last year, Rs 212 crore was left unused. This year, the Centre gave Punjab Rs 280 crore for crop residue management machines. So, about 492 crore was available but the state chose to sit on the funds, forcing helpless farmers to burn crop residues.”

Watch: AAP, BJP spar as stubble burning goes up in Punjab

Compared to Punjab, other states that have recorded “active fire events” this season are hardly worth mentioning. While there were 2,083 incidents in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh reported 777, 345 and 972 incidents, respectively.

Sangrur: Punjab CM’s constituency

Most of the cases came from Malwa belt, with Sangrur recording the largest number of farm fires in the state. Sangrur recorded 286 cases, followed by neighbouring districts Patiala (268), Barnala (109), Bathinda (108), Ludhiana (105), Ferozpur (104), and Fathegarh Sahib (99).

According to the 2011 census, paddy was sown over 2.7 lakh hectares, or 87 per cent of the net planted area, in the Kharif season in Sangrur district. Wheat was sown over 2.8 lakh hectares, or 92 per cent of the net planted area, in the Rabi season. Major paddy cultivation also makes Sangrur one of the hotspots for stubble burning.

An economist’s perspective

Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) member Sanjeev Sanyal, in a series of tweets on Thursday, mentioned that stubble burning has picked up pace only recently.

Delhi AQI is running at 500-800 range. In fact, one can actually smell the ash particles in the air. The burning of crop residue is the single biggest source. So why did farmers in Punjab started doing this? It was not such a widespread practice till recently 1/n pic.twitter.com/2ftFGU9OiU

— Sanjeev Sanyal (@sanjeevsanyal) November 3, 2022

As shown in image below, kharif sowing only gets going in early July. This means that crops are still standing in late Oct and have to be hurriedly harvested in early Nov. This means that there is just a week to clear the land for rabi sowing – hence crop burning 3/n pic.twitter.com/CE0DpimZck

— Sanjeev Sanyal (@sanjeevsanyal) November 3, 2022

Earlier, the farmers in Punjab and neighbouring states did not follow the practice with this dedication, Sanyal pointed out. He has attributed the increase in stubble burning to a delay in kharif cropping cycle by at least three weeks in Punjab.