Why Stubble Fires Keep Coming Back

18 Oct 2026

Tags: Environment   Conservation   Pollution control

Source: The Hindu

Context: Stubble burning is the deliberate burning of crop residue left after harvesting, particularly paddy straw in Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, mainly during October–November; it contributes to North India’s winter air pollution.

• Punjab and Haryana together produce around 29 million metric tonnes of paddy straw, making residue management a major agricultural and environmental challenge.

Environmental Impacts of Stubble Burning

• Air pollution: Releases particulate matter, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carcinogenic substances, contributing to smog and adverse health effects.
• Soil degradation: Destroys nutrients such as nitrogen, sulphur, potash and phosphorus, while heat reduces soil moisture and organic matter, increasing dependence on fertilisers.

Why Stubble Burning Became Widespread

Groundwater Crisis and Legal Restrictions

• Combine harvesters: Introduced widely in Punjab during the late 1970s and early 1980s, they leave substantial crop residue, increasing the need for rapid stubble clearance.
• Groundwater depletion: In 2012, nearly 73% of Punjab’s cropped area depended on groundwater irrigation, with a deficit of 14.31 billion cubic metres; groundwater levels declined by about 0.36 metres annually during 1999–2009.
• NASA GRACE study (2009): Estimated that Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan lost 109 cubic kilometres of groundwater between 2002 and 2008, then considered the world’s largest instance of groundwater depletion.
• Punjab Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Act (PPSSWA), 2009: Restricted paddy sowing before May 10 and transplantation before June 10 to align cultivation with monsoon rainfall and reduce groundwater extraction. Violations attracted penalties of ₹10,000 per hectare per month, and authorities could destroy illegally sown paddy.

Narrow Window Between Paddy and Wheat Crops

• Delayed harvesting: The 2009 Act shifted paddy harvesting towards late October and early November, leaving only 10–15 days to prepare fields for wheat sowing.
• PUSA-44 variety: Its high yield and long maturity period of 150–160 days further narrowed the interval between paddy harvesting and wheat sowing.
• Cost and time constraints: Combine harvesters leave approximately one foot of stubble, while manual removal is expensive and time-consuming, making burning an attractive short-term option for farmers.

4. Economic Incentives Behind the Paddy–Wheat Cycle

• Assured procurement and Minimum Support Price (MSP): The procurement system provides relatively assured markets for rice and wheat, discouraging farmers from shifting to alternative crops. During 2012–2024, average paddy procurement as a share of production was 37% nationally, against 87% in Punjab and 74% in Haryana; for wheat, the corresponding figures were 30%, 70% and 63%, respectively. Since national averages include Punjab and Haryana, the differences excluding these States would be even larger.
• Subsidised electricity: Free electricity in Punjab and almost-free electricity in Haryana lowers the cost of groundwater extraction, reinforcing the cultivation of water-intensive paddy and wheat.

Measures to Manage Paddy Straw

In-situ Management (within the field)

• Crop Residue Management (CRM) machinery: Happy Seeders, Super Seeders and Rotavators enable residue incorporation or wheat sowing without burning; however, the machinery often requires expensive 60-horsepower tractors, while hiring a machine can cost around ₹10,000 and involve long waiting periods.
• Agricultural alternatives: Short-duration rice varieties and direct-seeded rice can help reduce the time and resource pressures associated with conventional paddy cultivation.

Ex-situ Management (outside the field)

• Alternative uses: Paddy straw can be collected for bioethanol, compressed biogas (CBG) and other industrial applications.
• Economic constraints: Ex-situ management costs approximately ₹1,500–₹2,500 per acre, which can be prohibitive without assured buyers and remunerative prices for crop residue.

Government Measures and Enforcement

• Judicial intervention: In 2018, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ruled that farmers burning stubble could be excluded from the MSP policy; the Supreme Court upheld this view in 2023.
• Monitoring in 2025: The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) deployed 31 flying squads across 18 districts of Punjab and 13 districts of Haryana, involving 10,500 field functionaries in Punjab and 10,000 in Haryana.
• Accountability of officials: The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) directed that complaints be filed before the judiciary against officials responsible for ineffective monitoring, while a Parliamentary Committee on air quality argued that penalising farmers should be the last resort.
• Assured income for residue: The Parliamentary Committee recommended fixing a minimum price that covers the costs of selling stubble for ex-situ utilisation, providing farmers with a reliable source of income.

Punjab and Haryana: Different Approaches

• Punjab: Primarily relied on in-situ CRM measures, with relatively limited ex-situ initiatives. In 2025, CAQM highlighted the need for timely machinery availability, greater support for CBG plants and other paddy-straw-based industries, and stronger enforcement.
• Haryana: Combined in-situ and ex-situ interventions with financial incentives, including ₹1,000 per acre for CRM use, ₹4,000 per acre for direct-seeded rice, ₹7,000 per acre for crop diversification, and incentives for panchayats based on performance.
• Reported reduction in burning: Punjab and Haryana reportedly achieved a 90% reduction in stubble-burning incidents during the 2025 paddy-harvesting period compared with the corresponding period in 2022, according to a Lok Sabha starred question (No. 18, December 1, 2025). However, satellite-based measurement limitations warrant caution in interpreting this figure.

Measurement Problem: Are Burning Incidents Being Underestimated?

• CREAMS protocol: The Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space uses NASA’s Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) satellite data to detect active fires.
• Limitation of polar-orbiting satellites: Their observations over India occur at fixed times, approximately 10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m., and therefore cannot capture all fires occurring over 24 hours, particularly those lit in the evening.
• Alternative estimates: A 2025 report by the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology estimated a more gradual reduction of around 30% when multiple satellites were used to assess the actual land area affected by fire.
• ISRO-led study: A study published in Current Science in November 2025, using geostationary satellite observations, suggested that some farmers had shifted burning to evening hours to avoid detection by polar-orbiting satellites. It recommended combining polar and geostationary satellite data for more accurate measurement.

Way Forward

• Diversify cropping patterns: Gradually shift from the paddy–wheat cycle towards less water-intensive alternative crops through assured markets, remunerative prices and procurement reforms.
• Strengthen residue-management economics: Ensure timely access to CRM machinery, expand CBG and other biomass-utilisation industries, and provide farmers with a guaranteed minimum price for collected stubble.
• Combine short- and long-term interventions: Use in-situ and ex-situ technologies to address immediate residue-management needs while pursuing longer-term crop diversification.
• Improve monitoring and accountability: Integrate polar and geostationary satellite data to capture fires across different times of the day; enforcement should be supported by reliable measurement rather than incident counts alone.
• Avoid excessive reliance on penalties: Punitive approaches may encourage collusion between farmers and officials or the under-reporting of fires. Incentives that make residue management and crop diversification economically viable are therefore essential.