A temporary relief

Burning of crop residue needs a lasting solution

Images captured by satellites of US space agency NASA over the past few weeks indicate massive blazes in Punjab and Haryana as well as in western Uttar Pradesh. Every year, such fires choke the neighbouring landscape and its inhabitants. The national capital region of Delhi is the worst affected due to farm fire-driven spikes in pollution because not only is it located in the heart of this intensive agricultural belt where such blazes are common, but also because it has an excess of other pollutants such as vehicular emissions and construction dust. The smoke from burning fields tends to hang