Stubble burning incidents down 68 percent after doubling of fines, says environment ministry

A farmworker monitors the burning of rice crop stubble in the Patiala district of Punjab.

Incidents of stubble burning fell by 68 percent in November after the Centre doubled the fines for setting fire to crop residue, data provided by the ministry of environment, forest and climate change shows.

Stubble burning is the practice of setting harvest residue such as rice stalks on fire by farmers to pave way for fresh sowing. In the north, it typically happens from mid or late October to November or early December after paddy is harvested and is a major cause of air pollution, with the smoke blending with fog as the temperature begins to dip.

“The cumulative paddy residue burning reports show a 68 percent decline for the period from November 6 to November 27 in 2024 as compared to (the same period in) 2023,” the ministry told Parliament on December 2.

On November 7, the Centre issued new rules doubling fines for stubble burning. Farmers with a holding of less than two acres are fined Rs 5,000 for every incidence of stubble burning, those with two acres or more but less than five have to pay Rs 10,000. Farmers with more than five acres have to pay an environmental compensation of Rs 30,000 for one incidence.

When compared to 2022, the cases of stubble burning in Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and the NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan fell 76.6 percent from 53,672 in 2022 to 12,530 in 2024.

“In Punjab, the total number of stubble burning incidents reduced from 49,888 in 2022 to 10,821 in 2024 and that of Haryana from 3,629 in 2022 to 1,373 in 2024,” the ministry said.

December has been better for Delhi-NCR compared to November when the air was “severe-plus” on some days and in the “very poor” category for most of the month.

On December 2, the number of cities with “good” air quality rose to 28 for the first time in more than two weeks. More than 10 percent of the 242 cities that reported data for December 2 had an Air Quality Index (AQI) reading of below 50.

Two out of five cities had AQI levels below 100, while just 13.2 percent of the cities had poor or worse air quality.

An AQI reading between 0 and 50 is considered good, 51 and 100 satisfactory, 101 and 200 moderate, 201 and 300 poor, 301 and 400 very poor, 401 and 450 severe, and above 450 severe-plus.