Staying the course: On the fight against air pollution in the Indo-Gangetic plains

With the southwest monsoon drawing to a close, north India, particularly the States in the Indo-Gangetic plains, brace themselves for the annual spike in winter pollution. Earlier this week, a top functionary in the Prime Minister’s Office convened a meeting with representatives from Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, along with the heads of several ministries in Delhi. The brief was to take stock of the steps in place to prevent air quality from deteriorating catastrophically in Delhi. While pollution from vehicular emissions, road and construction dust, solid waste management, and diesel sets have over the years been counted as key sources of emissions, the burning of paddy stubble in Punjab and Haryana is known to be responsible for as much as 40% of the pollutant load during October and November. Punjab is expected to generate 19.52 million tonnes of paddy straw this year as compared to Haryana’s 8 million tonnes. At the meeting, both States have committed to “eliminate” paddy stubble burning this year. To be sure, last November, the Supreme Court of India had expressly ordered that such burning completely ceases. This year, it has demanded to know from the Centre the steps that have been taken to address the problem. Whether the States can comply remains to be seen.

The harvest season of 2023 saw a 59% fall in the number of stubble-burning incidents in Punjab as compared to 2022; in Haryana it dipped by 40% but Uttar Pradesh saw a 30% rise. Despite the solutions to address the problem being known — create economic incentives as well as punitive measures to prevent straw from being burned — implementation remains a challenge. Punjab says that it hopes to manage 11.5 million tonnes of its paddy straw through in-situ (on the field) crop residue management and the rest via ex-situ methods. Similarly, Haryana will manage 3.3 million tonnes in-situ and use ex-situ methods for the remainder. In addition to this, 2 million tonnes of paddy straw would be ‘co-fired’ in 11 thermal power plants across the NCR region. Co-firing refers to turning the straw into pellets that can be used as a source of carbon. Experience over the years shows that several of these machines are not available to farmers when required. While using the straw in power plants has often been touted as a solution, there is no well-oiled system in place to transport straw from field to plant. The causes of the pollution crisis are multi-layered and will yield results only gradually. The States and the Centre must set aside their political differences and stay the course collectively.