Punjab Crop Burning

26 images Created 2 Nov 2018

Two days ago, just as the WHO concluded that ‘air pollution is the new tobacco’ and on the wings of the new IPCC report, Delhi’s air quality rapidly declined into a category its officials describe as ‘severe’. A large part of the blame has been ascribed to farmers in the neighbouring North-Indian states of Punjab, who burn crop residue at this time of the year. Farmers say they are tired of taking the blame for the capital’s problems. This photo story looks at the underlying issues with existing preventive measures- from crop diversification, machine subsidies to biogas energy plants- that make it impossible for farmers from this heartland of India’s Green Revolution to do anything but burn.
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