Experts warn of october surge in stubble burning; Delhi's air quality at risk

NEW DELHI: The stubble burning season has started with satellites recording 124 farm fires in the neighbouring states from Sept 15 to 23. During the same period, the counts stood at 25 in 2023, 132 in 2022 and 16 in 2021. Experts said stubble burning counts were likely to rise in Oct after the withdrawal of the monsoon.
Of the 124 farm fires, 69 were in Punjab, 46 in Haryana, six in Madhya Pradesh and three in Uttar Pradesh, shows satellite data compiled by Indian Agricultural Research Institute, which follows the standard protocol 2021 notified by Commission for Air Quality Management in the national capital region and adjoining areas.

In Punjab, 51 farm fires have been spotted only in Amritsar. Of the 46 crop residue burning events in Haryana till Sept 23, 24 were witnessed in Karnal and eight in Kurukshetra.
Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of rese- arch and advocacy at Centre for Science and Environment, said, “It is important to intervene at this early stage of the crop burning season to ensure that both in situ and ex situ solutions are in place for targeted implementation to minimise the problem. The scale of implementation is critical to control this problem. This requires an immediate audit of the infrastructure and systems in place to identify the gaps to guide action.”
The impact of stubble burning on Delhi’s air quality is so far negligible. “Even westerly winds are blowing in the city and, hence, the wind direction is unfavourable for the transfer of smoke or pollutants to Delhi,” said an official. He added that once the monsoon is over, the daily stubble burning counts are likely to go up from Oct. The peak burning, when daily farm fires are over 3,000 in a day, takes place in the first fortnight of Nov.
During the stubble burning period from Sept 15 to Nov 30, 39,186 farm fires were reported in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, NCR districts of UP, and Rajasthan in 2023. During the same period, the cumulative paddy residue burning events were 52,992 in 2022 and 78,550 in 2021.
Its impact on Delhi’s air depends on the wind direction and speed. Paddy residue burning counts decreased in neighbouring states last winter, but its impact was more than in 2021 and 2022 due to meteorological conditions, shows an analysis by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.
TOI had reported that from Oct 22 to Nov 30, 2023, the contribution of stubble burning was above 10% on 58% of the days, more than 15% on 44% of the days, and over 20% on 30% of the days. In contrast, the contribution was over 10% for 32% of the days each in 2022 and 2021.