Punjab farm fires and Delhi air pollution worsened together on Diwali day, as Punjab recorded 1,152 crop stubble fires, the sharpest single day jump of the season, pushing the seasonal total to 4,459 as Delhi’s air remained locked in the very poor category.
Official figures reported by The Hindu put the border district of Tarn Taran at the top of the count with 654 fires. The burning of paddy residue after the harvest is a long standing practice in the state, and a driver of Punjab farm fires and Delhi air pollution, where farmers have a narrow window to clear fields before sowing the winter wheat crop, and Diwali, which fell on 8 November this year, coincided with the peak of that window.
Punjab farm fires and Delhi air pollution: the Diwali spike
Downwind, the capital paid the price. Punjab farm fires and Delhi air pollution left Delhi’s average air quality index at 376 on Monday morning, deep in the very poor band, with several neighbourhoods crossing 400, a level classified as severe. On Tuesday the post Diwali pollution persisted, Delhi stayed very poor, and Chennai recorded the sharpest deterioration among India’s big cities, a reminder that the annual smog is no longer only a northern story.
The crisis quickly turned political. Delhi minister Kapil Mishra, of the BJP, alleged that fires had been set deliberately, an accusation the reporting behind the figures does not support with evidence. The opposition AAP, in turn, accused the authorities of manipulating pollution readings. As in previous years, the argument over Punjab farm fires and Delhi air pollution risks crowding out the harder discussion about machinery subsidies, crop diversification and the economics that keep stubble burning rational for small farmers.
Punjab farm fires and Delhi air pollution: what the very poor air days mean for health in the capital
For residents of the capital region, the debate is academic. Schools, hospitals and outdoor workers plan around the smog calendar each autumn, and doctors warn of rising respiratory cases whenever the index stays above 300 for days at a time. Until the farm economics change, Punjab farm fires and Delhi air pollution, and the politics around them, will return with the harvest.
Source: The Hindu