Nowadays stubble burning is rapidly increasing its contribution to air pollution. Human are the primary source of burning and even biomass burning is producing many greenhouse gases in the environment. As farmers use harvester in their field so it left some residue behind (stubble) and burning stubble is the most beneficial way for farmers. In India and China, stubble burning is practiced the most and produces 84.0Tg and 110.0Tg (Streets et al., 20039). This leads to various health issues and harmfully affects the environmental in those regions. The stubble of rice crop impacts the environment more because of the large number of pollutants (RSPM, nitrogen oxides, and sulfur oxide).

Remote sensing is the way to collect them from inaccessible areas and this technology has been improved in the last few years (Escuin et al., 2008; Murphy et al., 2008; Pradhan, 2001). When the stubble burnt, it left a black mark on a field behind and that black mark has been used to identify the regions of burning by Satellite imaging.

In Punjab, two districts named Patiala and Ludhiana are the major rice produces. A study was conducted, which concluded that the stubble was 1.5 times greater than the rice produced. So, farmers left with a single option to burn stubble which leads to a huge number of pollutants (Gupta and Sahai, 2004). This discharge of toxic waste deteriorates the atmosphere, human health too. “The emission of pollutants from stubble burning depends on the composition, soil moisture condition, stubble moisture content, and ambient conditions i.e., wind speed and temperature”(Jenkins et al., 1996). In India, the burning of stubble takes place in the months of April to May and October to November of wheat and rice, respectively. The rice stubble produces more pollutants than wheat one and the festive season is also coming in the month of October and November. Therefore, along with stubble burning, people burnout crackers in festivals, which increment the number of pollutants in the air. The emission of pollutants affects the local people most (Pratika Chawala). Pollutants also tend to travel beside with wind direction (Pratika Chawala). Overall, it is focused that the main reason behind this main issue is rice stubble. The out limit of these pollutants dropped the National Ambient Air Quality Standard. In this study, A very small change had been noticed in the air pollution in Patiala and Ludhiana between the years 2014 and 2018. So, further strategies and achievable solutions should be implemented.

Works Cited

Chawala, Pratika, and H. A. S. Sandhu. “Stubble Burn Area Estimation and Its Impact on Ambient Air Quality of Patiala & Ludhiana District, Punjab, India.” Heliyon, vol. 6, no. 1, Jan. 2020. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e03095.