Stop Blaming Punjab And Haryana Farmersfor Delhi’s Strangulating Toxic Air Levels

The bureaucracy, numerous expert committees, and the national media too must accept responsibility for spreading misinformation. After all, these institutions had collectively defamed the farming community for no fault of theirs

Forseveral years now, farmers from the north western region of the country -- Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and parts of western Uttar Pradesh -- have been continuously battered for chocking Delhi’s air. As if farm fires were the real reason behind the capitals toxic air in the months of October and November, when the period of still air over New Delhi coincides with the harvesting of paddy crop, no effort was spared to iron out the menace, rue farmers.

Every paddy harvest season, with the media shrill rising in crescendo as harvesting progressed, farmers were on the receiving end for pollution Delhi’s already toxic air. In a magnificent cover-up for its own undoing over the years, simply to absolve itself of any responsibility, New Delhi found it very convenient to shift the blame on farmers – painting them as the true villain of the story.

But on June 4, media reports say that in a presentation before the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) had a different story to tell. Quoting a January 2023 report of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), the PM’s Advisor Tarun Kapoor was told that burning of agricultural residues had contributed only one per cent to PM 2.5 to PM 10 air pollution levels in Delhi.

In an era where transparency and accountability are the hallmark of governance, if what was said is true, and I see no reason for not believing in what has been put on record, the best that New Delhi can do is to stand up, accept the fault and apologise to the farmers.

The bureaucracy, numerous expert committees, and the national media (both print and electronic) too must accept responsibility for spreading misinformation. After all, these institutions had collectively defamed the farming community for no fault of theirs as is now clearly evident.

When I say ‘no fault of theirs’, I am not trying to defend the harmful practice of stubble burning. The disadvantages of stubble burning and its effect on the environment and human health are well acknowledged. All efforts should surely be made, and that includes creating wider awareness and providing affordable solutions, to turn stubble burning into history.

But what is simply not acceptable is that in the search of a scapegoat, farmers, who being unorganised, come in handy for repeated bashing.

Farmers provide a smokescreen to hide New Delhi’s glaring contribution to polluting its own air. Shifting the needle of suspicion to farmers therefore became the most effective deflector. This had helped in building an army of abusive trolls on social media, who not only excelled in casting aspersions on farmers, but went to the extent of accusing them for deriving sadistic pleasure so as to pollute Delhi’s ‘clean’ air.

Because of continuous farmer bashing, the Supreme Court came down heavily against the ‘erring’ farmers. As a result, by October 21, 2024, Punjab had registered 874 FIRs, 471 daily dairy reports (DDR), red entries were made in the revenue records of 394 farmers and penalties to the tune of Rs. 10.55-lakh were imposed on 371 farmers.

In Haryana, by the same date, 400 farmers were blacklisted barring them for selling their crops in mandis for two years, while 18 were arrested in Kaithal district in just two days.

In November, another 32 farmers were arrested in Yamunanagar. Such draconian measures were termed as ‘Tughlaki firman’ by the opposition parties.

Interestingly, it is the same CAQM on whose reports the apex court had directed the police in Punjab and Haryana to initiate criminal prosecution against farmers who indulge in farm fires, now acknowledges that farmers in north-west parts of the country had contributed only one per cent to Delhi’s air.

This is what had prompted, as per media reports, the well-known Haryana bureaucrat, Ashok Khemka, a 1991 batch IAS officer, to write to the Haryana Chief Minister urging him to declare that given what was presented before PMO by the CAQM Chairman the other day, it is quite clear that farmers in Punjab and Haryana are not responsible for adding to Delhi’s air pollution.

The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) had also shown that despite a significant drop by 71.2 per cent in stubble fires during October-December 2024, Delhi’s PM 2.5 levels had risen for the second consecutive year in 2024. And given the fact that farm fires had practically no role to play, New Delhi cannot any more hide behind Punjab fires. Further it is important to know that while the number of farm fires in Punjab and Haryana have come down as evident from the CSE study, stubble burning incidents on the other hand have multiplied in Madhya Pradesh and are even spreading to Chhattisgarh.

Everyone loves to heap blame on farmers. In one of my earlier columns (SUVs and not farmers responsible for the scary air pollution levels, in Bizz Buzz, Oct 25, 2024) my argument was that given that every fourth car on the street being an SUV, and with their numbers continuously rising, these monster cars spew 20 per cent more carbon emissions than a mid-size car. It is time to clamp down on the SUVs but the problem is that every member of the elite society wants to flaunt his newly-acquired SUV as a status symbol.

Yes, it is true that air pollution levels are different from carbon emissions (says an AI search), but they are closely linked. Being two sides of the same coin, air pollution also includes greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, as well as other pollutants like methane, nitrous oxide and others.

Coming back to stubble burning, the time has come to stop blaming Punjab and Haryana farmers for Delhi’s strangulating toxic air levels and instead shift the focus on managing its own air quality norms.

While I don’t deny that some measures have been taken over the years but a lot more certainly needs to be done, including some tough decisions.

This can only happen if Delhi residents are first made to realise that they themselves are responsible for the worsening air levels they are living with.

(The author is a noted food policy analyst and an expert on issues related to the agriculture sector. He writes on food, agriculture and hunger)