Context: Recently, Centre has informed the Supreme Court that it will bring a law, via ordinance, to address air pollution as well as check stubble burning in Delhi as well as the surrounding National Capital Region.

• The ordinance is being drafted by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change.

Background

• The Delhi NCR already has a Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), which is overseen by the Environment Pollution Authority, that has specified a number of measures that governments must take — from banning diesel gensets to restricting vehicle movement — depending on the degree of pollution.
• To check stubble burning this kharif (summer) season, the Punjab government has appointed 8,000 nodal officers in villages that grow paddy.
• With the monsoon withdrawing and winter-conditions setting in, air quality in the Delhi-NCR has been deteriorating since last week and dipped to ‘poor and very poor’ on the air quality index.
• Pollutants from straw burning are brought in by the wind. Instances of burning, or fire counts, as they are called and tracked via satellite, have increased in the last few weeks.
• Central Pollution Control Board officials have said adverse meteorological conditions — a drop in wind speed and lowering of the mixing height (at which pollutants disperse), led to pollutants remaining trapped in the air.

Lokur Panel

• The Supreme Court decided to “keep in abeyance” its previous order appointing former Supreme Court judge Justice Madan B. Lokur to a one-man committee to monitor/prevent stubble-burning in Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.
• The decision to put on hold its order came soon after Solicitor General informed the Supreme Court Bench that the Centre had “proposed a legislation to tackle the problem” which occurs annually and chokes the Capital.

Views of the Supreme Court

• The court had said the student forces could patrol highways and fields in the three States and ensure that no fires were started in the fields.
• It asked the Chief Secretaries of the three States to provide facilities to the Lokur committee and provide student volunteers with adequate transportation to aid their vigil.
• It directed the existing mobile teams and nodal officers of the States to report to the committee.
• The court chose Justice Lokur for the task as the retired judge had headed the Green Bench which was monitoring stubble-burning for two whole years before his retirement.

Stubble Burning

• Stubble burning is the burning of rice straw by farmers to clear fields for sowing.
• The paddy residue is not used as fodder as it’s unfit and hence farmers burn both the paddy stalk and straw close to autumn every year which is a key contributing factor of pollution causing breathing problems in the northern region.

Paddy is a Kharif (monsoon) crop.

• In Punjab and Haryana, the harvesting of paddy crop is usually done between the first week of October till October end.
• The wheat residue is used as fodder for cattle and it’s only the stalk that is set on fire.

Wheat is a Rabi (winter) crop.

• It is sown from late October to December while the harvesting usually starts from mid-April onwards.

Other measures taken to tackle the menace

• The states have put in efforts towards raising awareness of the ill-effects of stubble burning.
• Farmers are being educated by the agriculture department regularly about the bad effects of burning fields which kills several crop-friendly insects and causes pollution.
• Penalties are being imposed on farmers as there’s a ban on burning the residue.
• To check stubble burning this Kharif (summer) season, the Punjab government has appointed 8,000 nodal officers in villages that grow paddy.
• Over 23,000 crop residue management machines are being given to farmers for on-site management of straw.
• The state had been pressing the Centre to give Rs 100 per quintal to farmers for managing the paddy straw without burning.

Road Ahead

• While there are measure and several laws in place for checking pollution, the states lack adequate infrastructure at the level of state and municipal bodies to implement them. Better enforcement is the need of the hour.