Increasing health threat to greater parts of India due to crop residue burning
Authors: Sudipta Sarkar, Ramesh P Singh, Akshansha Chauhan
Journal: The Lancet Planetary Health (2018)

Delhi, the capital of India (in the Indo-Gangetic Plains), is one of the most polluted cities in the world.1The Lancet Planetary HeathGovernment indifference over air pollution crisis in Delhi.Lancet Planetary Health. 2017; 1: e348Summary Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (4) Google Scholar The air quality of Delhi and Beijing is often compared. The cause of poor air quality in the two mega cities is similar, and is mainly attributed to the growing population, economic growth, coal-based power plants, vehicular emissions, growing construction activities, and crop residue burning. The westerly winds bring polluted air mass from western parts of India (including Pakistan) to the Indo-Gangetic Plains and the pollution is carried over the Indo-Gangetic Plains depending on the meteorological conditions. The extent of the pollution in the Indo-Gangetic Plains depends on the wind speed. Delhi and Beijing have different geographical settings. Delhi is surrounded by the towering Himalayas in the north, whereas Beijing is located in the plains. The poor air quality in Delhi and surroundings have a serious impact on people living in the northern parts of India compared with those in central and southern India, although no official health data are available. Rice crop residue burning2Chauhan A Singh RP Poor air quality and dense haze/smog during 2016 in the Indo-Gangetic plains associated with the CRB and Diwali festival.2017 IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform. 2017; 13: 549-556Google Scholar, 3Cusworth DH Mickley LJ Sulprizio MP et al.Quantifying the influence of agricultural fires in northwest India on urban air pollution in Delhi, India.Environ Res Lett. 2018; 13: 044018Crossref Scopus (66) Google Scholar, 4Kaskaoutis DG Kumar S Sharma D et al.Effects of CRB on aerosol properties, plume characteristics, and long-range transport over northern India.J Geophys Res. 2014; 119: 5424-5444Google Scholar, 5Singh RP Kaskaoutis DG Crop residue burning: a threat to South Asian air quality.Eos Trans AGU. 2014; 95: 333-334Crossref Scopus (81) Google Scholar, 6Sarkar S Singh RP Chauhan A Crop residue burning in northern India: increasing threat to greater India.J Geophys Res. 2018; (published online June 19.)DOI:10.1029/2018JD028428Google Scholar during mid-October to November every year is becoming a serious health threat because of increased burning by farmers in the states of Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Crop residue burning2Chauhan A Singh RP Poor air quality and dense haze/smog during 2016 in the Indo-Gangetic plains associated with the CRB and Diwali festival.2017 IEEE/ACM Trans Comput Biol Bioinform. 2017; 13: 549-556Google Scholar, 3Cusworth DH Mickley LJ Sulprizio MP et al.Quantifying the influence of agricultural fires in northwest India on urban air pollution in Delhi, India.Environ Res Lett. 2018; 13: 044018Crossref Scopus (66) Google Scholar, 4Kaskaoutis DG Kumar S Sharma D et al.Effects of CRB on aerosol properties, plume characteristics, and long-range transport over northern India.J Geophys Res. 2014; 119: 5424-5444Google Scholar, 5Singh RP Kaskaoutis DG Crop residue burning: a threat to South Asian air quality.Eos Trans AGU. 2014; 95: 333-334Crossref Scopus (81) Google Scholar, 6Sarkar S Singh RP Chauhan A Crop residue burning in northern India: increasing threat to greater India.J Geophys Res. 2018; (published online June 19.)DOI:10.1029/2018JD028428Google Scholar started in the late 1980s with the start of mechanised harvesting in Punjab. Farmers found burning to be an economical way of cleaning crop stalk residues that are left over by mechanised harvesters. In doing so, farmers ignore the impact of this practice on health and air quality3Cusworth DH Mickley LJ Sulprizio MP et al.Quantifying the influence of agricultural fires in northwest India on urban air pollution in Delhi, India.Environ Res Lett. 2018; 13: 044018Crossref Scopus (66) Google Scholar, 4Kaskaoutis DG Kumar S Sharma D et al.Effects of CRB on aerosol properties, plume characteristics, and long-range transport over northern India.J Geophys Res. 2014; 119: 5424-5444Google Scholar, 5Singh RP Kaskaoutis DG Crop residue burning: a threat to South Asian air quality.Eos Trans AGU. 2014; 95: 333-334Crossref Scopus (81) Google Scholar, 6Sarkar S Singh RP Chauhan A Crop residue burning in northern India: increasing threat to greater India.J Geophys Res. 2018; (published online June 19.)DOI:10.1029/2018JD028428Google Scholar in the cities located in the Indo-Gangetic Plains. In the winter season, the severity of this problem increases as dispersion of smoke plumes is slowed down because of cold temperatures, whereas during the summer season the problem does not exist because of fast dispersion of plumes from burning. The practice of crop residue burning that started in Punjab has slowly spread to other adjoining states in northern India. We have found that the impact of crop residue burning on air quality is not restricted to cities in the Indo-Gangetic Plains alone, but is spreading to the far eastern parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plains and over central and southern parts of India, including parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Telangana, and Maharashtra.6Sarkar S Singh RP Chauhan A Crop residue burning in northern India: increasing threat to greater India.J Geophys Res. 2018; (published online June 19.)DOI:10.1029/2018JD028428Google Scholar We used diverse climate datasets derived from different NASA space platforms as well as global climate models and ground stations for our analysis.6Sarkar S Singh RP Chauhan A Crop residue burning in northern India: increasing threat to greater India.J Geophys Res. 2018; (published online June 19.)DOI:10.1029/2018JD028428Google Scholar A strong high-pressure system develops over the northwestern states of India and the wind flows from the north, northwest towards the south and east, carrying incomplete burn residues. Increased amounts of such fine-grained carbonaceous particles can have adverse effects on the climate, human health, and overall air quality. We found evidence of increasing amounts of black carbon, during November, over areas in central and southern India.6Sarkar S Singh RP Chauhan A Crop residue burning in northern India: increasing threat to greater India.J Geophys Res. 2018; (published online June 19.)DOI:10.1029/2018JD028428Google Scholar We also found 80% or more of all recent methane increases (figure) in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, parts of Maharashtra, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, and west Bengal to be tied to transport of methane from the north in November. We also observed a sharp increase in respiratory suspended particulate matter and PM2·5 (figure), during November, from ground observations in some of these central and southern areas of India, which indicates a sudden increase in concentrations of finer particles.6Sarkar S Singh RP Chauhan A Crop residue burning in northern India: increasing threat to greater India.J Geophys Res. 2018; (published online June 19.)DOI:10.1029/2018JD028428Google Scholar The increase in such finer particles in these areas can raise ambient values of these particles by 50% or more. The Government of India has introduced a law against crop residue burning, which needs to be strictly enforced as the impact of crop burning has been accelerating since 2010. We declare no competing interests.