Paddy area in Punjab rose to 31.4 lakh hectares between 2000 and 2020
The record increase in paddy cultivation in Punjab over the past 20 years gave the country food security, but it has now become an environmental curse for the state. Between 2000 and 2020, the area under paddy cultivation in Punjab rose to nearly 31.4 lakh hectares. The bitter truth hidden behind this agricultural revolution is that burning the stubble left in fields after mechanical harvesting is turning the entire Indo-Gangetic Plain (IGP — starting from Punjab and extending to Bengal and Assam) into a gas chamber.
The study was conducted by Harsimranjit Kaur Romana, a researcher working under the guidance of Derrick P. Shukla, Associate Professor at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, IIT Mandi, and Professor Ramesh P. Singh from the United States. The study has been published in the UK's reputed journal RSC Advances.
The researchers have emphasized that instead of formulating a uniform policy for the entire state, local management strategies now need to be adopted at the district and block level — only then can Delhi-NCR and the whole of North India get relief from this suffocating smoke. The study found a direct link between stubble-burning incidents and worsening air quality. Satellite-derived data showed a strong statistical correlation of 60 to 81 percent between active fire counts and ground-level pollution. According to the study, the Malwa region has emerged as a hotspot for a multi-pollutant crisis, while pollution levels are also rising in the Majha and Doaba regions.
Roughly 90 lakh tonnes of stubble is burned in fields across Punjab every year. Every year, about 8.24 lakh tonnes of essential nutrients (nitrogen, phosphate and potash) are reduced to ash from the soil, destroying the land's fertility. If the practice of stubble burning is not stopped, the situation will spiral out of control by 2040. Particularly in central and southwestern districts such as Firozpur, Hoshiarpur and Rupnagar, the concentration of toxic gases like black carbon and ozone will rise to lethal levels. Releases toxic gases including black carbon, ozone, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10) into the atmosphere. Contributes significantly to severe air pollution across Delhi-NCR and North India during October–November. Turns the Indo-Gangetic Plain into what experts describe as a "gas chamber" during peak burning season.Destroys essential soil nutrients — nitrogen, phosphate, and potash — which are reduced to ash.
