Crop burning on despite court warning

Despite the Delhi high court’s orders, crops are going up in smoke in Punjab and Haryana, triggering a pollution alarm in the national capital.

Nasa’s ‘Web Fire Mapper’ suggests that burning of paddy stubbles in farmlands of Punjab, Haryana, and parts of Uttar Pradesh, have increased exponentially in the last fortnight.

Images show that the red dots, that denote fire, were concentrated in areas bordering Pakistan and northern Punjab before October 6. But soon after, the images suggest that the plumes of fires started to engulf the city.

Early this month, the Delhi government had asked the neighbouring states to prevent agricultural burning. Major agricultural fires were reported by the Nasa last year, environment minister Imran Hussain said in his letters to his counterparts in Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh on October 4 and 5. The recurrence of the annual phenomenon show that the warning of authorities, including the Delhi high court, Delhi government, and the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution Authority, were not heeded. On October 6, a high court bench had made it clear that it will hold the chief secretaries of Punjab, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh responsible if the orders of the National Green Tribunal and the court in this regard were not implemented.

The increasing instances of crops going up in flames assume importance in light of the findings that a major share of pollutants which engulf the national capital, especially during winter, originate outside the city.