How Punjab farmers outwit Nasa satellites in stubble-burning crackdown

Punjab farmers have found a way to outwit Nasa satellite surveillance in the ongoing stubble-burning crisis by strategically timing their fires

A thick blanket of toxic smog has engulfed north India since Wednesday, leading to plummeting temperatures, near-zero visibility, and severe air pollution levels. Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) hit an alarming 428 at 9 am today (November 15), marking its worst reading this season. The Indo-Gangetic Plains (IGP), stretching across Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, and beyond, remain shrouded in hazardous smog, with satellite imagery revealing the grim extent of the pollution. 

Hiren Jethwa, an aerosol remote sensing scientist at Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center, attributed the worsening air quality to thermal inversion and stubble burning.  Explaining the phenomenon, he told NDTV, “The warmer air sits above the cooler air on the ground and that does not allow the vertical mixing of pollutants and whatever we emit at the surface stays for around 200 metres within the boundary layer. The stronger the thermal inversion, the more pollutants will be trapped near the surface because there is no venting place for the pollutants to go up in the vertical direction.” 

Satellite images reveal that smoke from crop burning, mixed with clouds, exacerbates thermal inversion, further intensifying pollution. 

Jethwa said farmers in Punjab are circumventing Nasa satellite surveillance by burning stubble in the late afternoon, post-2 pm. “This is confirmed by the South Korean geostationary satellite that the majority of the crop burning happens after 2 pm once the Nasa satellites overpass the region when there is no surveillance, but the fires cannot be hidden from geostationary satellites which take a picture of the region every five minutes,” he said, as quoted by NDTV. 

   

Crop burning: A persistent culprit 

While the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) praised Punjab for reducing stubble-burning cases by 71 per cent, satellite data tells a different story. On Monday alone, Punjab recorded over 7,000 farm fires. Jethwa revealed, “The pollution load in the past two weeks has reached levels unseen in the last decade. Crop burning continues, especially after 2 pm, when Nasa satellites have passed.” 

Satellite data shared by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, revealed that five farm fires were reported in Punjab, 11 in Haryana, and 202 in Uttar Pradesh today. According to government data, Punjab recorded 49,922 farm fire incidents in 2022, 71,304 in 2021, 76,590 in 2020, 55,210 in 2019, and 50,590 in 2018. Districts such as Sangrur, Mansa, Bathinda, and Amritsar consistently witnessed a high number of stubble-burning cases during these years.

 

Pollution crisis: Delhi’s AQI soars 

Delhi’s pollution woes are compounded by emissions from vehicles, construction activities, and crop burning. The AQI surged from 334 on Tuesday to 418 on Wednesday, as smog towers and emergency measures failed to stem the crisis. Dense smog caused disruption of flight operations at Indira Gandhi International Airport, with visibility dropping to dangerous levels.

 

Lahore tops the world’s pollution index 

Across the border, Pakistan’s Punjab province faces similar challenges. Lahore, enveloped in a dense smog layer stretching to western Uttar Pradesh, recorded a staggering AQI of 1,136, making it the most polluted city globally. Outdoor activities are banned, schools are closed, and businesses are operating on reduced hours to curb the health crisis. 

A Unicef report released on November 11 warns that over 11 million children under the age of five in Pakistan’s Punjab province are at risk of exposure to toxic air. Abdullah Fadil, Unicef’s representative in Pakistan, stated, “Toxic air has disrupted the learning of 16 million children in Punjab.”

 

Emergency measures fall short 

Delhi’s CAQM has enforced stricter norms, including a ban on non-essential construction and the plying of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel vehicles. The Supreme Court has also scheduled an expedited hearing on November 18 to address the crisis. However, experts warn that temporary fixes like smog towers will not suffice without addressing the root causes, including crop burning and industrial emissions.