FARM FIRE INSTANCES DOWN, BUT ‘BURNT AREA’ REMAINS LARGE A farmer-citizen conflict? Not really

INCIDENTS OF STUBBLE burning in the agriculture fields around Delhi have received a lot of policy attention in recent years, as these events exacerbated air pollution in the city.

- SANDIP DAS & ARUNIMA BHARDWAJ

While there has been a significant drop in such instances across all northern states this season, the “burnt area” (total field area where the crop residues are set on fire) has remained almost the same.

The government at the Centre and the states concerned and even the corporate sector initiated several measures aimed at reducing the annual practice of paddy stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana through ‘in-situ’ (management in the field) and ‘ex-situ’ (treating stubble outside the field).

However, the still-large ‘burnt area’ implies not only lack of efficiency of these measures in checking a worsening of air quality, but also a serious depletion of organic matter in the soil, with consequences for its nutrient content.

According to official sources, ~4,000 crore has been allocated to Punjab and Haryana over the last few years to manage and treat paddy stubble. There’s still work to be done to eliminate farm fires, which most farmers still find the most effective way to dispose of crop materials to prepare the fields for next sowing season.

The environment ministry has acknowledged that stubble burning remains an ‘episodic’ yet significant contributor to winter pollution in Delhi-NCR, alongside vehicular emissions, industrial pollution, waste burning, construction dust, landfill fires, and weather patterns during early winter months.

The stubble-burning status report 2025 by the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology (FOREST) released on Monday stated this led to a major underestimation of the contribution of stubble burning to Delhi’s air pollution this year.