Some specific points that may be lost in the headline / cursory reading of the article: 1) India as a whole is overpopulated and has a pollution problem. This particular issue is limited to Delhi, however. 2) From the perspective of the magnitude and extreme levels of pollution, this is a seasonal issue whose primary contributor, by a large margin, is farmers burning off their crop stubble after their harvest ends. T…
A nice overview of what recently (2009) changed and what's changing now (2018-19) and the related politics by Shekhar Gupta: https://youtu.be/OAnSS6rdJCA
> A major factor behind the high pollution levels at this time of year is farmers in neighbouring states burning crop stubble to clear their fields What is the obstacle to fining these farmers? (Most agricultural systems have moved past burning stubble.) Do the farmers form a blocking bloc? Or are there other factors at play.
Farmers are financially not that well off and a big share of population in India is farmers. There is already provision of prosecuting farmers in law, but no administration wants to punish the relatively poor + electorally important farmers by enforcing the laws.
I will recommend anyone curious to know why the stubble burning issue has become this serious only in recent times, to have a look at Shekhar Gupta's (a well respected journalist) analysis from couple days ago - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAnSS6rdJCA
Tldr - Stupid laws trying to tackle heavy water consumption in the dry months forced farmers to grow paddy 6-8 weeks later which then left them little time to get the fields ready for next harvest and hence burning stubble seems like a quick option (with no consequence to them).
> A major factor behind the high pollution levels at this time of year is farmers in neighbouring states burning crop stubble to clear their fields What is the obstacle to fining these farmers? (Most agricultural systems have moved past burning stubble.) Do the farmers form a blocking bloc? Or are there other factors at play.
No Indian government will openly fine farmers (they secretly fine for not maintaining the minimum balance in the bank accounts of state owned banks) -- with majority of population coming under the name "farmers" (including Amitabh Bachchan.
> No Indian government will openly fine farmers
Why aren’t the farmers’ interests balanced by the afflicted voters?
Some specific points that may be lost in the headline / cursory reading of the article: 1) India as a whole is overpopulated and has a pollution problem. This particular issue is limited to Delhi, however. 2) From the perspective of the magnitude and extreme levels of pollution, this is a seasonal issue whose primary contributor, by a large margin, is farmers burning off their crop stubble after their harvest ends. T…
Some specific points that may be lost in the headline / cursory reading of the article: 1) India as a whole is overpopulated and has a pollution problem. This particular issue is limited to Delhi, however. 2) From the perspective of the magnitude and extreme levels of pollution, this is a seasonal issue whose primary contributor, by a large margin, is farmers burning off their crop stubble after their harvest ends. T…
Have you tried "no-till farming"? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No-till_farming It's very popular here in Argentina, and it reuse the stover. [Disclaimer: I live in a city (Buenos Aires), but at least I have a few flowerpots.]
I travel to India every other month for my job. Most agriculture happens on small farms by poor and uneducated people. Introducing new technology and agricultural practices is difficult but is certainly underway in parts of the country. There is also a lack of political will to solve the problem in the particular case of Delhi and its neighboring state of Punjab, and as the parent comment suggested, there is very much a tendency to sow disinformation by those highest up.
Some specific points that may be lost in the headline / cursory reading of the article: 1) India as a whole is overpopulated and has a pollution problem. This particular issue is limited to Delhi, however. 2) From the perspective of the magnitude and extreme levels of pollution, this is a seasonal issue whose primary contributor, by a large margin, is farmers burning off their crop stubble after their harvest ends. T…
> This particular issue is limited to Delhi
Great write-up! But, this issue is not limited to Delhi; the whole of north India is under severe pollution. Delhi gets highlighted the most because it's the capital of the country.
Some specific points that may be lost in the headline / cursory reading of the article: 1) India as a whole is overpopulated and has a pollution problem. This particular issue is limited to Delhi, however. 2) From the perspective of the magnitude and extreme levels of pollution, this is a seasonal issue whose primary contributor, by a large margin, is farmers burning off their crop stubble after their harvest ends. T…
South Korea and Taiwan have higher population density than India, and Japan is not far off (517/km, 652/km, 412/km, and 334/km, respectively)