Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
Chandigarh, Oct 15 (IANS) The 2025 floods in Punjab and Haryana have acted as an “unplanned intervention”, reducing rice crop residue burning activity by 77 per cent, leading to a 15.5 per cent decline in Delhi’s average PM2.5 levels this month compared to last year, an analysis said on Wednesday.
Analysis using Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and NASA data showed that even with the reduction in stubble burning, Delhi’s PM 2.5 still remains above 50 µg/m3, suggesting a significant background load from other sources – traffic, industries and resuspension of dust.
Fine particulate matter is defined as particles that have a diameter of 2.5 microns or less (PM2.5). Long-term exposure to levels above 50 μg/m3 can cause serious health problems and premature death.
“The analysis examining the relationship between stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana and PM2.5 levels in Delhi during the first 12 days of October for two consecutive years – 2024 and 2025 – emphasizes that reducing farm fires alone may provide immediate benefits, but structural air quality benefits require multi-sectoral emission controls beyond agriculture,” a researcher told IANS.
This year, there were large-scale floods in Punjab and sporadic floods in Haryana, which significantly disrupted agricultural activities and crop residue management.
“This climate anomaly provides a unique lens to understand how changes caused by stubble burning affect Delhi’s air quality,” said the researcher, requesting anonymity.
The researcher said that the 77.5 percent reduction in total incidents of stubble burning this month can be directly attributed to the heavy floods in Punjab and Haryana.
The floods delayed crop cycles, flooded fields and reduced the availability of dry residue, making it physically impossible for many farmers to burn the residue. This resulted in an involuntary but heavy suppression of fire activity in both states, the researcher said.
Similarly, Delhi’s average PM2.5 levels declined by 15.5 per cent with the decline in stubble burning during this period. “This natural experiment underlines a strong causal link between the intensity of biomass burning in unfavorable states and the deterioration in air quality in the National Capital Region (NCR),” the researchers said. “Fewer fires clean the air, even without major policy or enforcement changes,” he added.
In 2025, the daily correlation becomes weaker as non-agricultural sources (vehicular, industrial, dust, etc.) dominate the residual pollution levels.
“Comparative data between October 2024 and 2025 reinforces that controlling agricultural burning is critical for Delhi’s clean air, but sustained improvement in air quality will also depend on addressing urban and industrial emissions,” the expert said.
The total cases of stubble burning in Punjab from October 1 to 12 in 2024 were 392, and they fell to 105 during the same period in 2025, a decline of 73.2 per cent.
In Haryana, stubble burning cases were 387 from October 1 to 12 in 2024, which declined to 70 during the same period in 2025, a decline of 81.9 per cent. During this period, Delhi’s average PM2.5 in 2024 was 60.79 and this year it was 51.48, a decrease of 15.5 per cent.
With 31 more cases being reported on Tuesday, 165 farm fires have been reported so far in Punjab, the season’s biggest single-day increase in farm fires.
According to Punjab Remote Sensing Center data, Amritsar tops the list with 68 cases of stubble burning, followed by Tarn Taran, where 47 incidents were witnessed.
However, Haryana has seen a 97 per cent decline in incidents of stubble burning between September 15 and October 13 this year compared to the same period last year.
Officials attributed the huge decline in Haryana to strict enforcement against criminals. To quickly clear the field for the next crop, farmers burn the remaining paddy straw instead of using the traditional method of hand-cleaning or adopt the option of sustainable millet cultivation to break the paddy-wheat crop cycle introduced during the Green Revolution era (1967-1978), agriculture experts say.
Smoke from burning crop stubble, smoke from vehicles and emissions from factories combine to envelop Delhi in a suffocating haze every winter, mainly due to reduced wind speed after the withdrawal of monsoon and cold winds from the Himalayas.
(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)
–IANS
VG/DPB