India's Air Pollution Menace: Addressing Stubble Burning, Urban Issues, and Old Habits with SOPs for Change

Scratch the dust and grime off India’s air pollution issue, and you'll see the stark reality of challenging ingrained behavioral patterns, be it stubble burning or urban pollution.

Over the past few days, India has experienced previously unheard-of levels of air pollution. The air quality index, which measures particulate matter and gases, hit over 500 on November 7 in New Delhi. In response, the Delhi government activated the Graded Action Response Plan's "severe plus" stage to combat air pollution.

The citizens, the media, and government officials have been crying hoarse about air pollution but are unsure about whom to pin the blame on. Fingers are mostly being pointed to stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana in addition to urban pollution. Adding to the problems has been the steady drop in temperatures with the approaching winter.

However, the issue runs deeper than just stemming stubble burning or curbing vehicular traffic and needs an overhaul in age-old habits, StartupTalky found after speaking with educationists, researchers, government officials, and agri-tech companies.

Stubble Burning
Green Alternatives
Pay-to-Breathe Industry

Stubble Burning

Despite having various alternatives at their disposal, burning residual harvested crops or stubble may just be a lazy out for farmers. Stubble is the cut stalks of the harvested paddy crop that are left sticking out of the ground.

“There is only a window of 20–25 days. The farmer has to sow wheat immediately after harvesting rice. So, to save time, the farmer lights a fire on his farm, and within a week, he sows wheat. Earlier animals would be fed the stubble; now there are no animals left,” said Manoj Tripathi, principal scientist, plans implementation and monitoring from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

ICAR, the autonomous research body of the agriculture ministry, has developed a bio-decomposer that, when sprayed on, decomposes stubble, turning it into natural fodder for crops. Unfortunately, despite widespread awareness and implementation, this project hasn't taken off.

“It's a microbial process, and it takes time. It takes about 10–20 days. The farmer cannot give much time. Burning is an easy way out," said ICAR Principal Scientist from the Agricultural Engineering Division, Devendra Dhingra.

Some farmers have also expressed dissatisfaction about the effectiveness of the decomposers.

Apart from this, the government also gives subsidies to certain machinery, considered to be an eco-friendly, effective way of dealing with stubble, such as the Super Seeder. This machine converts existing residue crops into mulch while seeding the new crop at the same time.

Despite these incentives, farmers continue to burn residual crops. Field King, one of the manufacturers of the Super Seeder, explains why burning stubble continues to dispute the availability of these machines.

“One reason burning continues is because there is a lack of awareness, plus some of these products are slightly costlier. On average, they cost around 2.5 lakh INR, out of which the government subsidizes 1.0–1.5 lakh INR. Yet, people don’t avail of the subsidies. But I don't think the challenge is money. The real challenge is the willingness of the farmer to switch to greener alternatives,” said Nitin Sharma, brand and marketing manager at Field King.

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Green Alternatives

Not just farmers; tackling pollution requires a massive systemic effort in the long run from all stakeholders.

“Collectively, everybody has to do something that will drive change. A systematic change is required over a period of time across various things that might improve air quality. A gradual change is needed right from how houses are constructed to the kind of vehicle we drive; everything has to change, including the source of how we generate power,” said Anirudh Sidharth, senior manager from angel investing platform Inflection Point Ventures.

For now, ICAR’s Dhingra suggested a few options to tackle the situation in the near term: running smaller buses, avoiding large-scale events and conferences during the winters, large vehicles switching over to electric fleets, and having scattered office timings during the day to avoid traffic.

Earlier this week, Mahindra and Mahindra Chairperson Anand Mahindra on social media favored the use of regenerative farming as an alternative to stubble burning. Regenerative farming fosters the health of the soil and safeguards water resources and the climate.

More sops can also be given to farmers who opt to send their stubble to balers instead of burning it down. These huge baling machines help create bales from the stubble, which are used as fuel in industries.

“Balers are not very cost-effective. If this can be subsidized, then it can be used for boilers. Scientific technologies are available, but they need to be used properly,” said Tripathi of ICAR.

According to media reports, the Punjab government in September said it would provide 30 balers to farmers at a 65% subsidy. At present, these balers cost around one crore INR.

According to another news report, Punjab revised its plan this year to distribute 1,850 baler machines down to 1,300 balers. In the end, they managed to give merely 500 balers so far and 768 balers in the last five years.

The graph shows the most polluted states in India in 2023, based on the Air Quality Index (AQI). The AQI measures the concentration of particulate matter in the air, a major pollutant that can harm human health.

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Pay-to-Breathe Industry

For some companies, the health hazard has meant a surge in demand for their products, such as air purifiers and masks.

Nirvana Being, a supplier of masks and air purifiers, saw a 200% rise in corporate sales in October and November and a whopping 3000% rise in customer sales during the same period.

“Unfortunately, people only dial into prevention or cure once they are either fearful or sick,” said Jai Dhar Gupta, founder of Nirvana Being.

A newspaper report quoted electronic retailers reporting a 70% rise in air purifiers since the drop in air quality.

While the pay-to-breathe industry may be reaping dividends, the overall economy ends up taking a hit.

In a comprehensive study carried out in 550 districts in India, the World Bank found that.

Conclusion

Pollution kills. Not just humans but the economy as well. The first step to effective pollution management starts with stringent monitoring. A number of institutes, such as the Indian Institute of Kanpur, are employing artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor the quality of the air. This mechanism needs to be scaled up urgently across the country.

Finding new and cheaper alternatives to tackle air pollution is also the need of the hour, as this would entail a huge thrust from stakeholders in research and development.

“The basic infrastructure in terms of creating awareness, pulling in early-stage founders, R&D, and use of resources has increased. However, to practically pilot run and execute it, we need the support of even the larger companies,” said Sidharth of Inflection Point Ventures.

Yes, baby steps have already been initiated to curb pollution. But, the road towards cleaning the air in India would mean breaking traditional habits by turning sustainability into a way of life.