Delhi heads for another smoggy winter as crop residue burning in Punjab, Haryana start

Come winter and the weather in North India is expected to be smoggier and more chilling compared to last year, especially in the national capital.

Crop burning accounts for quarter of the air pollution in Delhi every winter. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: Come winter and the weather in North India is expected to be smoggier and more chilling compared to last year, especially in the national capital. On Thursday, skies of New Delhi was engulfed in the toxic air as crop-burning has begun in various parts of adjoining Punjab and Haryana. A recent satellite image released by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) revealed that the farmers of Punjab and Haryana have started burning the crop residue from the starting of this month. Crop burning accounts for quarter of the air pollution in Delhi every winter and smoke from these adjacent states travels towards the national capital which fixes with the fog to form toxic smog every winter. The US space agency, on its official website, stated that burning crop residue in Punjab and Haryana has increased significantly over the past 10 days. Framers in Punjab and Haryana harvest their crops using sickles every year which ends up with huge pile of crop stubble in the fields. The government has been urging farmers to use considerable measures for disposal of stubble however, farmers prefer burning them as it happens to be the most inexpensive means. However, the incumbent Delhi government has been trying its best to curb the ever rising air pollution and also sought help from the Central government to direct neighbouring state such as Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to take preventive measures to control crop residue burning. Earlier this month, Delhi environment minister Imran Hussian wrote a letter to Union Minister of Environment Harsh Vardhan regarding the same. “An urgent high-level meeting of chief ministers of various states including NCR may be convened to review the effort made to control air pollution,” Hussain wrote in his letter. From the year 2021, ‘speciated air pollution data’ from NSASA's Multi-Angle Imager for Aerosols (MAIA) satellite will be used by Delhi researchers to figure out how the health impact of dust pollution differs from that of crop burning.