Haryana Reports Highest Stubble Burning Cases Since 2020: 468 Fires in Just One Month | Gurgaon News – Times of India

GURGAON: Amid the paddy harvest season, 468 instances of farm fires were recorded in Haryana between Sept 15 and Oct 14 this year, which is the highest for the period since 2020.

Data collated by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) shows there were 374 cases of stubble burning during the corresponding period in 2023, 102 instances in 2022 and 389 in 2021.
Among districts, Kaithal reported the highest number of fires at 75, followed by Kurukshetra (71), Ambala (51), Karnal (50), Jind (42), Sonipat (36), Fatehabad (24), Panipat (22), Yamunanagar (20), Palwal (20), Faridabad (19), Hisar (11), Panchkula (10), and Rohtak (6).
Stubble burning is an annual phenomenon. Between Sept and Nov every year, farmers across Haryana, Punjab, and UP burn crop residue to clear vast swathes of agricultural land and prepare them for the sowing season. The smoke rising from this — compounded by emissions from vehicles and industries — causes dense haze over Delhi-NCR, bringing down air quality levels and prompting authorities to impose restrictions under GRAP.
On Monday, the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) implemented stage 1 of GRAP, which will restrict construction and demolition (C&D) activities in Delhi, Haryana and UP, enforce a ban on coal and firewood in tandoors and intensify mechanised sweeping.
Experts agreed that the govt had taken measures to bring down farm fires, but asserted that more needed to be done. The high numbers this year, however, don’t indicate that this season would be worse than the last because harvest timings, accessibility to tools like seeders and mulchers, and the kind of paddy crop differs.
“There is a lot of paddy stubble to manage this year because there has been a bumper harvest. While machines like happy and super seeders are fruitful in tackling the menace, surveys show they are not readily accessible to all. While affluent villagers have their machines, small and medium farmers depend on the community for seeders. This causes a delay, which forces farmers to resort to stubble burning,” said Swagata Dey, policy specialist (air quality) at Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP).
Another reason that fuelled farm farms in 2024 is the lack of rain in Sept and Oct, unlike the past three years. “Post-monsoon seasonal fire prediction (Oct, Nov) for 2024 over northwest India has arrived. Sept data suggests 15,500-18,500 fire occurrences (1km detection) strictly under ‘as usual burning’ practice,” said Hiren Jethva, a senior research scientist at Nasa.
Govt data for this year shows that paddy was grown across 38.9 lakh acres in the state, generating an estimated 81 lakh tonne of crop residue, much of which could be burned. “We have been trying to reduce incidents of farm fires. Efforts are on to provide subsidised machinery to farmers to manage crop waste,” said an official in the agriculture department.
Data over the past few years suggests stubble burning incidents have actually come down, but still not enough to improve air quality. In the 2023 kharif season, Haryana recorded 2,303 active fire locations (AFL), down from 3,661 in 2022 and 6,997 in 2021. On Oct 10, CAQM authorised district administrations to file complaints against officials and even prosecute them in case they were found negligent in tackling stubble burning.