The Lift Line
“A farmer who receives value from stubble needs less policing than one who loses money removing it.” (Anupreet Singh Tiwana, The Indian Express, 25 October 2026)
Why This Column Matters for Your Exam
In the news: on 25 October 2026, The Indian Express carried a column, “For Delhi’s air pollution problem, stop blaming Punjab’s farmers”, in which Anupreet Singh Tiwana argues that Punjab’s farmers carry a disproportionate share of the blame for northern India’s winter smog, and that burning will fade only when stubble has a buyer and a price. The same day, the paper’s Explained desk reported that Punjab has recorded 574 farm fires so far this season, 414 of them (72%) in two districts of the Majha region, Tarn Taran and Amritsar.
The author’s note reads: “Tiwana holds a PhD from TISS Mumbai and writes on spatial justice, development and community geographies”. It is a signed column, so its argument is his; the district figures come from the paper’s reporting.
The topic sits on several syllabus lines. GS Paper 3: environmental pollution and degradation; cropping patterns, farm subsidies, minimum support prices and agricultural marketing. GS Paper 2: the design of government policies, and how costs are shared between the Centre and the States. GS Paper 1: the regions of Punjab on the map. It also suits an Essay on “the limits of blame in public policy”. For the groundwater law behind Punjab’s paddy dates, read this site’s reading of C.S.C. Sekhar’s column in The Hindu on why stubble fires keep coming back; for the case that Delhi’s air must be managed as an airshed, Gufran Beig’s column; and for CAQM’s review of the two districts on 24 October, this edition’s deep dive on the AATAL laboratory.
The Crux in 60 Words
Punjab’s satellite-counted stubble fires have fallen steeply since 2021, which shows that farmers can change. Tiwana argues that the moral blame they carry for Delhi’s smog is out of proportion: burning persists because a compressed crop calendar makes it the cheapest exit, and stubble has no assured buyer. Give straw a buyer and a price, he says, and less policing is needed.
Tiwana holds that blaming Punjab’s farmers for Delhi’s smog reduces a regional problem to one image, and that burning will end only when compliance is affordable and stubble has an assured buyer.
- The steep fall in satellite-detected fire events since 2021 shows that farmers can change their practices, though the counts measure fire events, not how much stubble was burnt or how much smoke reached Delhi.
- Punjab’s rice-wheat system, built for national food security, left a short interval between paddy harvest and wheat sowing, and burning became the cheapest way out of that compressed calendar.
- Grain has an assured route through mandis, procurement and the public distribution system; stubble has none, and in a CEEW survey he cites, only about 3 per cent of farmers who used ex situ management were paid for their stubble.
- Treating the farmer mainly as an offender brings police cases, environmental compensation and adverse entries in land records, which can deepen distrust between farmers and the state.
Burning still worsens early winter pollution and harms farm families first. In Majha, a Punjab Agriculture Department official told The Indian Express that machinery was available but farmers fitting in a third crop would not lose a day arranging it, which makes the problem partly one of choice that enforcement must still check.
Make compliance affordable: buyers who commit before the harvest, local collection and storage, transport support and a price that reaches the farmer; tie crop diversification to credible markets; and share the cost beyond the cultivator and one State.
Background and Context
The long fall since 2021
Tiwana cites a fall in Punjab’s officially recorded paddy stubble fire events from 71,304 in 2021 to 5,114 in 2025, “a decline of about 93 per cent”. CAQM’s release of 1 December 2025 gives the 2025 count and puts the fall over 2024 at 53 per cent. He adds the caveat an aspirant should carry into any answer: “These are satellite-detected events under the standard ISRO monitoring protocol, not a measure of how much stubble was burnt or how much pollution reached Delhi.”
Policy has grown alongside the fall. A central scheme on crop residue management subsidises machines for farmers and for Custom Hiring Centres. In 2025, Punjab appointed 10,500 field functionaries to monitor and contain fires, and deputed a Parali Protection Force of 1,700 at block level. Tiwana is careful here: the fire counts fell over the same period, “though the figures do not isolate the effect of each measure”.
This season: why Majha burns early
The Indian Express’s count for this season runs to 24 October. It is marginally higher than the 561 recorded over the same period in 2025, and well below 2024’s 1,678; in the paper’s reading, “the sharp reduction recorded last year has largely held, despite a marginal increase this season”.
Punjab is broadly divided into three regions: Majha in the northwest, Doaba in the northeast and Malwa to the south. Farm fires usually peak in early November, so Majha’s early lead needs explaining. Its farmers grow short-duration paddy and Basmati varieties, including Pusa 1509, whose early harvest frees fields in September for a third crop of green peas or potatoes before wheat. Experts at the Punjab Remote Sensing Centre and agriculture officials have identified blocks where this happens: Jandiala Guru, Tarsikka, Majitha and Ajnala in Amritsar, and Khadur Sahib and Chohla Sahib in Tarn Taran. Peas are a 60-day crop that fits between the paddy harvest and wheat sowing, and experts at Punjab Agricultural University have also linked Majha’s early fires to farmers preparing fields for peas, potatoes and other vegetables.
The Explained piece sums up the problem: “Short-duration paddy varieties offer a window to grow a third crop before sowing wheat. But officials say the biggest constraint to reducing fires is not machinery but the time farmers are willing to spare to clear their fields.” A senior Punjab Agriculture Department official, speaking anonymously, told the paper that farmers fitting in a third crop “often did not want to lose even a day arranging equipment and clearing their fields”, and that some might find hiring a machine dearer than burning. The State has an estimated 1.25 lakh operational residue-management machines, and both districts have enough of them, according to sources the paper cites.
Majha may not stay on top once the harvest ends, the paper notes, but Tarn Taran recorded the most fires of any district in the 2025 season, 696 of that year’s total. For context, CAQM had visited both districts on 9 and 10 October and stressed timely access to machinery, farmer awareness, and coordination among farmers, aggregators and industries that use baled paddy straw. A separate CAQM review of the two districts followed on 24 October.
The Analysis
Tiwana builds his case in five steps.
1. The image is not the whole problem. Each autumn, he writes, Delhi’s air turns toxic, television crews travel to Punjab, and “a regional air pollution problem is repeatedly reduced to the image of a farmer setting a field on fire”. He does not deny the smoke: “This does not excuse burning.” But research on the Capital’s air, he notes, identifies transport, industry, power, construction, road dust, waste burning and seasonal agricultural fires. “A burning field is easy to film.” A transport network or a construction site is harder to capture in one image, so “Responsibility should follow the evidence across these sources.” Farmers are also among the first victims: their families breathe the smoke closest to the fields, and he cites research involving PGIMER Chandigarh that documented poorer regional air quality during crop residue burning, and field studies in Punjab that reported more respiratory symptoms and poorer lung function during the burning period.
2. A compressed calendar. Punjab’s rice-wheat economy, Tiwana argues, was shaped by India’s food security strategy: assured procurement, minimum support prices, irrigation, high-yielding varieties and mechanisation made the State a major supplier of foodgrains to the national pool. “The system succeeded at what it was designed to do.” Its costs built up as groundwater depletion, narrowing crop diversity, mechanised harvesting that leaves stubble standing, and a short interval between the paddy harvest and wheat sowing. “Burning became the cheapest way out of that compressed calendar.” The alternatives “require money, diesel, labour, machinery and time”.
3. Stubble has no buyer. Grain moves through mandis, procurement agencies, mills, warehouses and the public distribution system. “Stubble has no assured destination.” A baler can make it transportable, “but it cannot create a buyer”, and a Happy Seeder can avoid burning on a field without changing the economics that keep paddy attractive. His evidence is a CEEW report published in 2024, based on a 2023 survey of 1,478 farmers across 11 Punjab districts: almost 33 per cent had used ex situ residue management, yet only about 3 per cent of these were paid for their stubble; around 69 per cent gave it away, and about 28 per cent paid to have it removed. To such a farmer, straw is a disposal cost, not a crop with value.
4. Help, then stigma. Public policy has helped, he accepts: since 2018 the Crop Residue Management scheme has subsidised machinery and Custom Hiring Centres, while monitoring and enforcement have expanded. But machinery “cannot by itself guarantee collection, storage, transport or a buyer willing to pay”. Once the farmer is seen mainly as an offender, surveillance and punishment look like the obvious remedies. Punjab has seen police cases, environmental compensation and adverse entries in land records linked to stubble burning, and earlier research, he says, suggests that punitive approaches can deepen distrust between farmers and the state. “Enforcement has a place, but it is less durable when compliance carries an uncertain bill.” The approach of the 2027 Punjab Assembly election adds pressure, because enforcement’s costs fall at once on cultivators while cleaner air is shared across a much larger population. “That does not justify weaker enforcement. It makes affordable compliance all the more necessary.”
5. Pay for the change. His remedy follows: “Punjab needs buyers who can commit before the harvest, local collection and storage, transport support, and a price whose benefit reaches the farmer.” Biomass plants, compressed biogas facilities and industrial boilers can use residue where the technology and logistics work; the test is whether they can buy “at scale, on time and at a price farmers can count on”. Crop diversification belongs to the same argument. Assured procurement makes paddy the safer choice, so asking a small cultivator to shift to maize, pulses or oilseeds without an equally credible market turns an ecological burden into an income risk. “Diversification without marketing reform is advice, not policy.” Last comes the federal question: Punjab’s agriculture has served a national food security system while many ecological costs stayed local, and “A system built partly for national purposes cannot ask cultivators or one State alone to bear the full cost of changing it.” The next task, he concludes, is to make alternatives “reliable enough to last without each autumn’s cycle of penalties and subsidies”.
Data and Institutions Vault
Prelims-grade facts:
This season (The Indian Express, to 24 October 2026):
- Punjab: 574 farm fires, 414 (72%) of them in Tarn Taran and Amritsar
- Same period earlier: 561 in 2025 and 1,678 in 2024
- Punjab’s three regions: Majha (northwest), Doaba (northeast), Malwa (south)
The official count:
- 2025 season (15 September to 30 November): 5,114 fire events in Punjab (CAQM), 93% below 2021 and 53% below 2024
- Method: the Standard Protocol for Estimation of Crop Residue Burning Fire Events using Satellite Data, issued by CAQM in August 2021
- The protocol was developed by ISRO in consultation with State Remote Sensing Centres and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI)
- Punjab in 2025: 10,500 field functionaries; a Parali Protection Force of 1,700 at block level
- CAQM: statutory body under the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021 (No. 29 of 2021)
The law:
- Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 (Punjab Act No. 6 of 2009): no paddy nursery before 10 May (or a notified date)
- Under the same Act, no paddy transplanting before a date the State notifies in the Official Gazette
- Under the Act, the agricultural year begins on 16 June; the penalty is Rs 10,000 for every month or part of a month, per hectare
The scheme:
- Central Sector Scheme for in-situ crop residue management in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and NCT of Delhi, from 2018-19
- Aid (as of 2021): 50% of machine cost to farmers; 80% of project cost for Custom Hiring Centres set up by cooperatives, FPOs, registered farmers societies and panchayats
- Machines on the list include the Happy Seeder, Super Seeder, Straw Baler and Super Straw Management System for combine harvesters
Crops:
- Pusa 1509: a short-duration Basmati grown in Majha; the early harvest frees fields in September
- Green peas: a 60-day crop that fits between the paddy harvest and wheat sowing
⚠️ Watch the trap: the 2009 Act writes a date only for the paddy nursery; the transplanting date is notified by the State, not written in the Act. Satellite counts are fire events, not the area burnt or the smoke that reached Delhi. A season total runs to 30 November, so a mid-season count is not comparable with it.
The Debate
The case for Tiwana’s line. The record backs his central point that farmers respond: CAQM’s own counts show a steep fall in fire events over four seasons, while enforcement and subsidised machines grew alongside. The Majha data fit his calendar argument closely. The early burners are farmers racing to sow a third crop, and the official’s account is about time, not a lack of machines. If, as the survey he cites suggests, most farmers who send straw out of the field give it away or pay to have it removed, then a market, not a fine, is what changes the arithmetic.
The other side. Stubble burning does worsen early winter pollution, as Tiwana concedes, and farm families breathe the smoke first. Machines have been subsidised for years and Punjab has an estimated 1.25 lakh of them; in Majha, the official said, some farmers would not spare a day, which is a choice made for a profitable third crop, and enforcement must still check it. This season’s count is marginally above last year’s for the same period, a sign that the gains need holding. And Tiwana’s own caveat cuts both ways: if satellite counts do not measure how much stubble was burnt, a falling count cannot by itself prove less burning either.
The balanced verdict. Tiwana is right that the burning field is the most visible source, not the only one, and that compliance must be affordable to last. His argument goes beyond its evidence in two places: the payment figures rest on one survey, and he gives no estimate of how much of Delhi’s smog the fires cause. The answer an examiner will reward keeps both halves: a buyer and a price for the willing farmer, and enforcement for the one who burns anyway.
How to Think About This
Use the “count, calendar, cost, buyer, burden” lens for any farm practice that harms the environment (stubble burning, groundwater overuse, fertiliser overuse):
- Count: what does the number measure? (Satellite fire events, not the stubble burnt or the smoke that reached Delhi.)
- Calendar: how many days does the farmer have? (A short gap between paddy and wheat, shorter still where a third crop is squeezed in.)
- Cost: what does the alternative cost? (Money, diesel, labour, machinery and time.)
- Buyer: who takes the residue, and does anyone pay? (In the survey Tiwana cites, few farmers were paid.)
- Burden: who pays for compliance, and who gains? (The cost falls at once on cultivators; cleaner air is shared across a much larger population.)
Then keep two habits. Separate the official record (CAQM counts, the Act, the scheme) from a column’s reading of cause and effect. And separate the farmer who cannot afford an alternative from the one who will not spare the time: policy needs a different tool for each.
Map Work: Punjab’s Majha, Doaba and Malwa
Map 1: Punjab’s three regions
Punjab’s three regions: Majha, Doaba and Malwa
Covers the Majha districts of Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Pathankot, the Malwa towns of Firozpur, Bathinda and Sangrur, the border with Pakistan, and Delhi.
Places to mark
| Place | Where it is | Why it is in this story |
|---|---|---|
| Majha | North-west Punjab, between the Beas and the Ravi | The State’s biggest farm-fire hotspot this season |
| Doaba | North-east Punjab, between the Beas and the Sutlej | Punjab’s third region, between Majha and Malwa |
| Malwa | South of the Sutlej | Punjab’s southern region |
| Amritsar | Majha; a border district along the India-Pakistan border | One of the two districts leading this season’s fires; its pea and potato blocks include Jandiala Guru, Tarsikka, Majitha and Ajnala |
| Tarn Taran | Majha; Amritsar to the north, Kapurthala to the east, Ferozepur to the south | The other leading district; its pea and potato blocks include Khadur Sahib and Chohla Sahib |
| Gurdaspur and Pathankot | Majha, north of Amritsar | With Amritsar and Tarn Taran, the four districts of Majha |
| Firozpur (Ferozepur) | Malwa, south of Tarn Taran | A Malwa district bordering Tarn Taran to the south |
| Bathinda and Sangrur | Malwa | Reference points for southern Punjab |
| Delhi | South-east of Punjab | The city at the centre of the smog debate |
Map facts
- Majha extends north from the right bank of the Beas as far as the left bank of the Ravi; its four districts in Indian Punjab are Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Gurdaspur and Pathankot.
- Doaba, also called the Bist Doab or Jalandhar Doab, lies between the Beas and the Sutlej: the Beas separates it from Majha, and the Sutlej from Malwa.
- Malwa lies south of the Sutlej, north of the Ghaggar, east of Pakistan and west of the Sivalik Hills; Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar and Firozpur make up its Lakhi Jungle tract, and Sangrur and Patiala are also in Malwa.
- Amritsar and Tarn Taran are border districts: Amritsar lies along the India-Pakistan border, and Tarn Taran has Pakistan to its west.
Diagram-in-Words
Why Punjab still burns stubble: Tiwana’s argument
Covers the blame, what the fire counts show, why burning persists, the risk of stigma and the remedy he proposes.
Read the figure from top to bottom: the blame, what the counts show, three reasons burning persists, the risk of stigma, and Tiwana’s remedy. The middle bands are his reading of why burning persists, not measured findings.
Satellite-detected stubble fire events in Punjab have fallen steeply since 2021, yet burning returns every autumn. Examine the reasons, and suggest how crop residue can be turned from a disposal cost into a source of income for farmers. (250 words)
Paddy stubble burning in Punjab worsens north India’s early winter pollution. Satellite-detected fire events, counted from 15 September to 30 November under a standard protocol developed by ISRO and issued by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), fell to 5,114 in 2025, a reduction of 93% over 2021.
Burning persists because it is cheap and the alternatives are not.
Calendar. Paddy is a kharif crop harvested from September to November, and wheat is sown from November.
Mechanised harvesting leaves stubble standing, and the interval before wheat sowing is short. Where an early harvest of short-duration paddy or Basmati is followed by a third crop such as peas, farmers have even fewer days to clear fields.
Cost. In-situ machines such as the Happy Seeder and Super Seeder, and ex-situ handling through balers, need money, diesel, labour and time.
A Central Sector Scheme on crop residue management has, since 2018-19, subsidised 50% of machine costs for farmers and 80% of project costs for Custom Hiring Centres. Market.
A baler makes straw transportable but cannot create a buyer; without assured demand from biomass plants, compressed biogas units, thermal power plants, brick kilns and industrial boilers, residue stays a disposal cost. Enforcement.
Punjab deployed 10,500 field functionaries and a 1,700-strong Parali Protection Force in 2025, and police cases and environmental compensation have followed, but punishment without an affordable alternative can deepen distrust. Federalism.
Punjab’s paddy has served the national food security system, while many ecological costs have stayed local.
Lasting change needs a residue market that pays the farmer: buyers who commit before the harvest, local collection and storage, transport support and a reliable price, with crop diversification backed by an equally credible market for other crops. Enforcement then becomes the backstop rather than the main instrument, and the cost of change is shared by the Centre, the State and the users of residue, not left to cultivators alone.
Interview Angle
"You are the Deputy Commissioner of Tarn Taran. Farmers who harvest early to sow peas say they cannot spare a day to arrange a machine. Would you lean on penalties, machines or a market for straw, and why?"
Takeaway Box
- Core idea: burning ends when compliance pays; give stubble a buyer and a price, and keep enforcement for those who burn anyway.
- Prelims hooks: Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 (nursery not before 10 May; transplanting date notified); ISRO satellite protocol issued by CAQM; CRM scheme (50% and 80%); Majha, Doaba and Malwa and the rivers between them.
- Ethics and Interview angle: blame and stigma against shared responsibility; one State’s cost for a national food security system.
- Probable question: “Crop diversification without marketing reform is advice, not policy. Discuss with reference to Punjab.” (GS3, 150 words)
Sources:
- Anupreet Singh Tiwana, “For Delhi’s air pollution problem, stop blaming Punjab’s farmers”, The Indian Express, 25 October 2026
- “Punjab farm fires: Why two districts have seen most stubble burning incidents”, Explained, The Indian Express, 25 October 2026
- Press Information Bureau: CAQM on the 2025 paddy stubble burning season, 1 December 2025 (PRID 2197201); monitoring protocol and enforcement, 5 February 2026 (PRID 2223752); CAQM review in Amritsar and Tarn Taran, 24 October 2026 (PRID 2328041); crop residue management scheme, Lok Sabha reply, 23 March 2021 (PRID 1707021)
- The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 (Punjab Act No. 6 of 2009), Punjab Government Gazette (Extraordinary), 28 April 2009
- The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021 (No. 29 of 2021)
- The Tribune, 24 October 2022 (government data on stubble burning in Punjab in 2021)
- Map: Natural Earth admin-0 (India’s point of view); region extents and coordinates from Wikipedia’s pages on Majha, Doaba, Malwa and the Amritsar and Tarn Taran districts
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