Stubble Burning in India: Causes, Effects & Measures

Stubble burning also known as Parali in local language is a practice of intentionally setting fire to the crop residue that includes stems (stubble), leaves, stalks, and seed pods of the yielded crops such as paddy. It is usually being done in the areas where combined harvesting methods are used. This technique is still being practiced on a large scale in India. 

What are the effects of Stubble Burning? 

There are some serious threats that stubble burning poses. It causes severe deterioration of the air quality Index along with vehicular emissions. The stubble burning being practiced in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab contribute majorly to the life-threatening high AQI of the National Capital, Delhi. The smoke from stubble burning in these regions travels about 250 Km and reaches Delhi. It's just not Delhi that suffers from it, the smoke also reaches various regions of northern India endangering the lives of hundreds of millions of people. The farmers of these regions burn up to 35 million tons of crop residue from April to November.  

The smoke coming from these regions contains toxic contaminants such as Carbon Monoxide (CO), Methane(CH4), Nitrogen oxides, Sulphur dioxide(SO2), but the most harmful substances it contains are particulate matter (pm) and ground-level ozone (O3).  Every year all these pollutants combined creates a heavy a thick layer over Delhi which is also referred to as Toxic cloud or Smog.  

Other than air pollution it also causes other problems such as soil erosion. The heat generated from stubble burning penetrates the heat making the soil lose its moisture and useful microbes which leads to soil erosion.  It also makes the soil lose its fertility by destroying the nutrients in it. 

Why is it still being Practiced? 

The farmers are practicing stubble burning for decades now and multiple factors lead to it, some of them being a cheap, quick, and efficient way to get rid of crop debris. Other factors include mechanized harvesting, which leaves 1-2ft tall stubble which takes about 1 to 1 and a half months to decompose on its own, however, farmers do not have sufficient time as they need the soil prepared for the next crop which is wheat, so instead for waiting for the residue to decompose they burn it. The paddy residues left behind also are harder to chew and have high silica content which makes them unfit to be used as animal fodder. 

What is the government doing regarding this issue? 

In the past several years central and state governments have taken several measures to cast down the number of stubble burning happening every year. The government banned the burning of the fields, fined farmers who were still practicing it, even put some of them in jail for it, though none of the measures were effective enough to stop the farmers from burning fields. Only banning and punishing the farmers, the prevention of stubble burning is not guaranteed. There needs to be a permanent and effective solution for this issue to stop from happening in the future.