Supreme Court takes note of The Hindu article on increase in stubble-burning areas in Punjab and Haryana, orders CAQM to submit report

Stubble (parali) is burned to remove paddy crop residues from a field on the outskirts of at Sangrur district in Punjab on November 02, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap

The Supreme Court on Friday (November 22, 2024) took note of an article by The Hindu published on November 22 and directed the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) in NCR and adjoining areas to submit to the court by Monday, data and a document cited in the newspaper article and also give clarifications.

The article in question states that the Central government-constituted CAQM had information that the ‘burnt area’ of paddy fields in Punjab and Haryana increased and many farmers were burning stubble after satellites passed over the area to avoid detection, according to multiple sources and documents accessed by The Hindu.

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But the CAQM continued to inform the Supreme Court time and again that over the past couple of years there has been a “significant reduction” in stubble burning incidents, as per the article.

A Bench Justices A.S. Oka and Augustine George Masih was hearing a plea on air pollution in northern India, especially NCR.

In an earlier hearing, the court’s amicus curiae, senior advocate Aparijita Singh, provided a “shocking” revelation that claims of a considerable dip in stubble burning may not be true.

The Hindu’s report quoted The Minutes of the Meeting (MoM) of the first sitting of the committee formed for estimating AQI on March 7, 2024, which mentioned “many of the farmers in Haryana receive the information regarding the timing of satellite passes; hence they carry out the burning activity after the pass.”

Despite this, the CAQM in seven affidavits or reports submitted to the Supreme Court from August 31 to November 16 this year did not refer to the increase in paddy burnt area or the concerns raised at the March 7 meeting.

When The Hindu visited two villages in Punjab and Haryana, many farmers knew about the satellite pass and the number of farm fires were also noticeably high after around 4 p.m., when the satellite completes its pass over the region and fires will not be recorded.

Many other farmers, who did not know about when the satellites passed, said that farms generally burn after 4 p.m. as officials are unlikely to visit the fields towards the end of the office hours.