Stubble smoke suffocates MP villages, exempted from double penalty

हिंदी में पढ़ें । On Thursday, 7 November, the Central Government doubled the amount of fine imposed on farmers burning stubble after the strictness of the Supreme Court. But the farmers of Khajoori Sadak village, located 20 km from Bhopal, are not worried about this; they are fearlessly setting fire to the paddy stubble left in their fields with matchsticks.

According to the notification of the Ministry of Environment, now a farmer will have to pay a fine of 5 thousand rupees for burning stubble on less than 2 acres of land, 10 thousand rupees for 2–5 acres, and those with more than 5 acres of land will have to pay 30 thousand rupees.This amount of fine has been directly doubled compared to earlier. 

Apart from this, the doubled fine highlights the policy's regional disparity. While Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Delhi must enforce strict stubble burning regulations, Madhya Pradesh remains exempt. This selective implementation reveals that India's crop residue management policy prioritizes Delhi's air pollution concerns over addressing the nationwide issue of stubble burning.

What to do if we don't burn stubble?

Khajoori Sadak is one of the few villages in Huzur tehsil of Bhopal district where paddy is grown in the Kharif season. One of the reasons for this is the proximity of this village to Bhoj wetland and also the availability of water.

When we reached here at four in the evening, many farmers were seen burning stubble in their fields.

Chhatar Singh Mewada cultivates 50 acres of land; his field looks completely black with the ash of burnt stubble. He says

"Farmers face multiple challenges: weather destroying crops, low market prices, labor shortages forcing mechanical harvesting, and now, the additional cost of removing stubble with rotovators. How can we afford not to burn when every expense cuts into our already thin margins?"

A rotovator is an agricultural machine that crushes the stubble and mixes it with the soil; this also makes the soil uniform, which makes sowing the next crop easier. In many villages of Madhya Pradesh, it is available for rent at the rate of 2000–2500 rupees per hour.

Right now, paddy harvesting is going on in most of the fields in Khajoori Sadak village. This work will be completed in the next 15 days. As the harvesting of the fields is completed, the fields will be set on fire one by one. That is, smoke will remain in the air here for the next 15 days.

If we look at the data from last year, it is known that 57 percent of the cases of stubble burning were registered between 8 and 30 November. Out of the total 36,663 cases registered last year, 15,685 cases were registered only during this period.

If Chhatar Singh had been fined for burning stubble as per the new rules, it would have been more than 30 thousand rupees for setting up around at least 10 acres of land on fire. However, because the administration has not taken such action in the past years, the farmers of Khajoori Sadak village, including Chhatar Singh, are confident that no one will visit their village to impose a fine.

The farmers and villagers of Khajoori Sadak do not consider it a problem but a tradition, which they have gotten from their forefathers. 

As we know, traditions or bad practices in India do not end without a long struggle. However, strict laws can speed up this work. The Environment Ministry increasing the amount of fines only in the states around Delhi shows that the government does not intend to end the practice of burning stubble nationwide or provide clean air for everyone to breathe. Whereas the Supreme Court has been repeatedly reminding governments that living in pollution is a gross violation of the fundamental rights of citizens under Article 21.

The fact that farmers in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi receive financial assistance under the Central Government's "Promotion of Agricultural Mechanization" scheme, which has been running for in situ management of crop residues since the year 2018-19, is further evidence of the Delhi-centric policy regarding stubble. 

The governments of these states were released Rs 3,062 crore more from the Central Government for the management of stubble from 2018 to 2023. But Madhya Pradesh did not get such financial support. Whereas Madhya Pradesh is behind only Punjab in terms of burning stubble.

Highest one-day stubble buring cases reported in MP

For most of the farmers in MP, burning stubble is a cheap and easy option. This is the reason that out of the total 10,693 cases of stubble burning in the country so far this season, 2875 cases have been registered in Madhya Pradesh, which is the highest in the country after 4394 cases registered in Punjab.

On Monday, 4 November, while 506 cases were reported in Madhya Pradesh in a single day, this figure was 262 in Punjab. This shows that cases of stubble burning are increasing rapidly in Madhya Pradesh. These figures have been collected from satellite imagery of the US space agency NASA. 

If we look previous years, in 2020, Madhya Pradesh reported 49,459 cases of stubble burning, while Punjab reported 92,922 cases. Over the past decade, instances of stubble burning in Madhya Pradesh have gone up tenfold. It is also notable that the Rabi season tends to see more cases of stubble burning compared to the Kharif season.

Burning of stubble destroys the fertility of the soil

Professor RP Singh of Sehore Agriculture College says that

“In Madhya Pradesh, a large number of farmers burn stubble, whereas this damages their land. Due to the fire, the temperature of the soil increases, which destroys the necessary microorganisms present in it. This also destroys nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium which are beneficial for the next crop."

After burning the stubble in Madhya Pradesh, farmers use ploughs in the fields to level them and prepare them for the next crop. At the time of sowing, they use fertilizers containing NPK, i.e., nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, so that these essential elements are present in the soil for the Rabi crop.

After destroying these elements naturally present in the soil, farmers in MP are currently standing in long queues for NPK, urea, DAP, and other fertilizers available from government societies.

Gyan SIngh also has a field next to Chhatar Singh's field; he got his paddy harvested by labourers instead of harvesters, and instead of burning the stubble, he will get it crushed by rotovator and mix it in the soil. He says,

"I have been doing this for the last 2-3 years; the expense is a little more, but it is beneficial."

RP Singh says,

 “There are many bio-enzymes available in the market that are helpful in eliminating stubble, but most farmers are not aware of this.”

One such bio-enzyme that the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) developed to break down crop residues and enhance soil health is pusa decomposer. It can be used to decompose crop residues, especially rice straw, and convert it into compost.

Let us tell you that in the month of November itself, farmers have to sow Rabi crops, so the farmer gets hardly 10 days between harvesting the Kharif crop and sowing Rabi. Meanwhile, they have to to prepare their field for sowing again. Bio enzyme takes at least 25-30 days to mix the stubble in the soil.

Chhatar Singh tells us that due to the late arrival of monsoon, paddy sowing was delayed this time. In such a situation, the time between paddy harvesting and wheat sowing in Rabi season has decreased further.

Damage to the environment

According to research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, burning of crop residues increases the amount of air pollutants such as CO2, CO, NH3, NOX, SOX, non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHC), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs), and particulate matter in the atmosphere. Which could have remained in the soil if the stubble was not burnt. While the increased level of particulate matter (PM) and smog poses a threat to health, the greenhouse gases emitted by them contribute to global warming and damage the environment by destroying the biodiversity of the land.

Bhopal's air quality reached alarming levels on Saturday, November 9, with AQI exceeding 300 across multiple locations: 316 in TT Nagar, 301 near the Collectorate office, and 323 at the Environment Complex Monitoring Center. 

The toxic smoke knows no boundaries—whether in Delhi's bustling streets or a remote Madhya Pradesh village, its impact is equally devastating. As evening descended on Khajoori Sadak, suffocating smoke engulfed the village, making breathing laborious and visibility poor. Even as we drove towards Bhopal, the choking haze pursued us for 30 kilometres, a stark reminder that air pollution is not just a metropolitan crisis but a national environmental emergency demanding immediate, uniform action.

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