Why Stubble Fires Keep Coming Back

Context of the News

Key Highlights

What Is Stubble Burning?

• Setting fire to crop residue — the lower parts of plants left after harvesting
• Practised from early October to end-November in north-west India
• Mainly in Punjab, Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh
• Punjab and Haryana together produce about 29 million metric tonnes of paddy straw

What Harm Does It Cause?

• Releases particulate matter, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds and carcinogenic substances, forming thick smog
• Depletes soil of nitrogen, sulphur, potash, phosphorus and micronutrients
• The heat destroys soil moisture and organic content
• Which in turn means more fertiliser is needed for the next crop

When Did It Start?

• Not new — practised in Punjab since the late 1970s and early 1980s
• It began with the arrival of combine harvesters, which leave part of the plant standing in the soil
• What changed was the timing — it now falls in the winter months, when smog traps pollution
• That shift followed the Punjab Preservation of Sub-Soil Water Act, 2009

What Did the 2009 Act Do?

• Barred paddy sowing before 10 May and transplanting before 10 June
• To align paddy with the monsoon, so rain replaces groundwater
• Penalty: officers could destroy paddy sown in violation and impose ₹10,000 per hectare per month
• These actions were exempt from legal scrutiny

How Did This Create the Burning Problem?

1. Delayed sowing pushed the harvest to late October and early November
2. Farmers were left a window of only 10 to 15 days before wheat sowing
3. The PUSA-44 variety, higher-yielding but taking 150-160 days, narrowed it further
4. Combine harvesters leave about a foot of stubble
5. Manual clearing is slow and costly
6. Burning became almost a necessity

Why Don’t Farmers Switch Crops?

Because procurement guarantees income for paddy and wheat:

• More than double the national average
• The national figure includes both states, so the real gap is wider
• Free power in Punjab and almost free in Haryana further encourages water-intensive crops

What Are the Technical Solutions and Their Costs?

In-situ — managing residue in the field:

• CRM machines — Happy Seeder, Super Seeder, Rotavator
• Short-duration rice varieties and Direct Seeding of Rice
• Problem: needs a 60-HP tractor, unused most of the year; hiring costs about ₹10,000 with long waits

Ex-situ — using residue elsewhere:

• Bio-ethanol and compressed biogas
• Problem: costs ₹1,500 to ₹2,500 per acre

What Have Courts and Regulators Said?

• NGT (2018) — stubble burners could be excluded from MSP; Supreme Court upheld this in 2023
• 2025 season: 31 CPCB flying squads in 18 Punjab districts and 13 Haryana districts, with 10,500 and 10,000 field functionaries
• CAQM directed that complaints be filed against officials who failed to monitor
• Parliamentary Committee: penalising farmers should be the last resort; instead set a minimum price covering all costs for selling stubble

How Did the Two States Differ?

• Punjab — mostly in-situ CRM; CAQM noted gaps in machinery availability, CBG plant support and enforcement
• Haryana — adopted an incentive-based approach:

Has Burning Actually Fallen?

• Government reported a 90 per cent reduction in 2025 over 2022
• But measurement is flawed:
  • CREAMS uses NASA’s MODIS and VIIRS — polar satellites observing India only between 10:30 am and 1:30 pm
  • They capture only active fires, not the full 24 hours
  • Using multiple satellites, a 2025 report found the fall in burnt area was only about 30 per cent
  • An ISRO study in Current Science (November 2025), using geostationary satellites, found farmers have shifted burning to evening hours to avoid detection

What Is the Conclusion?

• The solution must combine short-term in-situ and ex-situ measures with long-term diversification away from paddy
• Measurement methodology must improve
• Penalties are unlikely to work — they create a perverse incentive for collusion between farmers and officials, producing a “shown” reduction rather than a real one

Key Terms

• In-situ management: Dealing with residue in the field itself
• Ex-situ management: Removing residue for use elsewhere, as fuel or raw material
• Happy Seeder: A machine that sows wheat through standing stubble, removing the need to burn
• DSR: Direct Seeding of Rice — sowing seed straight into the field, skipping nursery and transplanting
• Polar satellite: Passes over a place only at fixed times each day; geostationary satellite stays over the same point continuously
• Perverse incentive: A rule that produces the opposite of its intended effect