Spotlight on air quality ahead of winter and stubble-burning in the North

This comes in wake of new WHO norms on air quality which indicate that whole of India faces high pollution across the year

The state of India’s air quality has taken the centre stage ahead of peak pollution days, with the Union and state governments moving to tackle widespread stubble burning in North India. According to the new World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines on air quality, however, the entire country has dangerous levels of air pollution throughout the year.

The Union government had earlier commissioned the Indian Institute of Technology at Kanpur to draft air pollution norms for the country but the final norms are likely to come out only next year. 

The Centre, its several agencies and the five key agriculture states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Rajasthan have stepped up efforts to prevent large-scale burning and avoid dangerous air quality in the coming winter months.

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has held several meetings with the environment ministers of the five states, who have all submitted an action plan to deal with stubble burning, said officials. The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) is also in the process of issuing several directives to the states on the issue.

The Union ministries of agriculture and power have also taken up measures for alternative use of the stubble. The Ministry of Power along with state-owned power generator NTPC would procure 20 million tonnes of bio-pellets made of farm stubble. Close to 14 thermal power units would use these pellets as fuel along with coal.

The agriculture ministry, which has earmarked Rs 400 crore for the next five years to tackle stubble burning, has so far disbursed 100,000 bio-decomposition machines in the five states.

The ministry has also set up a task force to look into the usage of stubble as cattle feed.

Officials said Kutch in Gujarat and Jaisalmer in Rajasthan have been identified as two regions where stubble can be transported for cattle feed due to high demand from the areas.

Union Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav said winters this year would be better in terms of air quality as strong steps have been taken in advance. 

“From July to September, six advisories and 40 directions have been issued on air quality. There are several reasons for poor air quality in Delhi — vehicular emissions, stubble, construction etc. We are taking active steps to reduce stubble burning through strict monitoring, using alternate methods etc,” Yadav said.

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) has carried out a project on bio-decomposition in the five states. They have covered 4,000 hectares of farm land in Delhi, 100,000 hectare in Haryana and 400,000 hectare in Uttar Pradesh with bio-decomposers.

Yadav said the CAQM has already alerted district chief secretaries for preventing farm fires. Ground-level staff would be monitoring the situation.

The Union government had come out with a law to tackle air pollution for the National Capital Region in October 2020. The law provided for the constitution of CAQM under the Environment Protection Act (EPA) 1986. The Centre, however, stopped short of making a nationwide body or a legislation to tackle worsening air quality. 

The WHO guidelines, released on Wednesday, lowered the level of pollutants that can be considered safe for human health. The WHO now says that a concentration of over 15 micrograms of PM2.5 per cubic meter is not safe. Earlier, it was 25 micrograms a cubic metre. This new norm puts the whole of India under dangerous air quality levels.