Open AccessMITIGATION OF CROP RESIDUE BURNING INDUCED AIR POLLUTION IN NEW DELHI – A REVIEW
Author(s) -
Gopalakrishnan Srinivasan,
Arumugam Abirami
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of engineering applied science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2455-2143
DOI - 10.33564/ijeast.2020.v05i08.045
Subject(s) - sowing , environmental science , crop residue , agriculture , crop , air pollution , agronomy , incineration , economic shortage , new delhi , air quality index , toxicology , agricultural engineering , engineering , waste management , geography , biology , meteorology , ecology , linguistics , philosophy , archaeology , government (linguistics) , metropolitan area
The atmosphere of New Delhi duringthe months of October to the January next year(every year) remains critical due to factors such asstubble burning in the nearby state of Punjab, airpollution rising out of Diwali fireworks and thesmog during December and January. Stubbleburning is the intentional incineration of paddy /any other field stubbles by farmers after theharvest. It is usually done to eliminate pests suchas rats, crickets and hoppers. The availability ofshort time between rice harvesting and sowing ofwheat is the most important reason for burning ofcrop residues. Also yield and quality of wheat getsseverely affected if there is delay in sowing. Sincethe time gap is very limited (about 3 – 4 weeks)between rice and wheat, burning of crop residuesis preferred since it is the quickest and easiestsolution for the farmers. According to reports,New Delhi, Noida and Ghaziabad recorded a peakAir Quality Index (AQI) of around 480 – 490 inthe month of November 2019. Health effects of airpollution include respiratory diseases, skin andeye irritation and other ailments. An importantfactor is shortage of labor contributing to burningof rice straw. Apart from stubble burning,farmers burn wood for domestic cooking, removalof municipal solid wastes and accidental /intentional wildfires. Use of combined harvester –Happy Seeder machine is a profitable and lesslabour-intensive management of rice residue. Yetmany farmers still have the perception that thereare no alternative solutions for crop residuemanagement. Besides Happy Seeder machine,there are other machines such as rotavator,reaper binder and no-till seed drill that can bealternatives for crop residue burning. In 2019 –20, the Punjab government disbursed a certainamount to farmers for not burning stubble ascompensation, yet many farmers adopted thestubble burning process. Other measures such asadoption of villages by Confederation of IndianIndustries, MoU with institutes for wast