On 13th November, 1,624 incidents of stubble burning were reported in the state of Punjab. A day earlier, on Diwali, that is, 12th November, there were 987 incidents of stubble burning reported in the North Indian state. Interestingly, these incidents had dropped to merely 6 just days back when the Supreme Court of India heard about pollution in Delhi. During the hearing, the apex court categorically blamed stubble burning in Punjab for the poor Air Quality Index in Delhi.
However, the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government, Aam Aadmi Party-led government in Delhi, and other stakeholders, including the media, are hell-bent on giving clean chit to the farmers of Punjab who are choking the people of Delhi with pollution. Instead of controlling the farmers, they blamed Diwali and Hindus for the pollution.
In a previous report, OpIndia explained how AQI in Delhi was better after Diwali was celebrated in full swing by bursting tons of fireworks compared to AQI earlier, which was worse due to stubble burning in Punjab. The report can be checked here.
OpIndia used satellite data from NASA and data provided by the Punjab Government to determine how stubble-burning incidents have dipped and increased between 4th November 2023 and 13th November 2023.
On 4th November, 1,360 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab.
On 5th November, 3,230 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab.
On 6th November, 2,060 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab.
On 7th November, 1,515 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab.
On 8th November, 2,003 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab. On this day, the Supreme Court of India started hearing matters related to pollution in Delhi.
On 9th November, 639 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab. On 9th November and 10th November, the apex court categorically blamed stubble burning for the pollution in Delhi. The court asked Punjab to take responsibility and questioned the intentions of the government of Punjab led by AAP as it failed to stop stubble burning.
On 10th November, just 6 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab. Evidently, the scolding worked for a couple of days as there were only six reported incidents of stubble burning in the state.
On 11th November, 104 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab. The incidents increased slightly the next day, but it was far from the previous records.
On 12th November, 987 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab. However, on the morning of Diwali, stubble-burning incidents saw an increase by nine times compared to the previous day.
On 13th November, 1,624 incidents of stubble burning were reported in Punjab. While AAP leaders, especially the environment minister of Delhi, Gopal Rai, blamed Diwali and Hindus for worsening air quality in the national capital, the stubble-burning incidents almost doubled from the previous day in Punjab.
Based on the wind patterns, it can be observed that the air is currently flowing from Punjab towards Delhi. It is expected that the pollution caused by stubble burning will take a few days to reach Delhi, further deteriorating the air quality index (AQI). Diwali would have already passed by the time this happened, and the AQI data indicates that the air pollution was not as severe as it was when stubble burning was affecting it before the rains.
In such a scenario, it raises the question as to whom Gopal Rai and others would hold responsible for the deteriorating air quality. In most probability, it will be Diwali and Hindus who will get the blame. Farmers, on the other hand, will once again get a free pass. They will keep burning stubble and choke the people of Delhi without any fear of the law of the apex court.
