Avtar Singh surveys stubble burning on his land in Punjab state's Patiala district

Avtar Singh surveys stubble burning on his land in Punjab state's Patiala district

Stubble burning in northern India has long been a major cause of air pollution, but efforts to stop it fail every year. The BBC's Krutika Pathi and Arvind Chhabra find out why.

Plumes of smoke from Avtar Singh's paddy fields envelop his village in Punjab state's Patiala district. Mr Singh has just finished burning left-over straw - known as stubble - to clear the soil for the next crop.

The smoke is likely to travel as far as Delhi, some 250km (155 miles) away, adding to the national capital's toxic haze. It's not just Delhi that suffers. Stubble burning has created a massive public health crisis - its fumes pollute swathes of northern India and endanger the health of hundreds of millions of people.

And it's more dangerous this year with Covid-19 ravaging the country as pollution makes people more vulnerable to infection and slows their recovery. According to some estimates, farmers in northern India burn about 23 million tonnes of paddy stubble every year.

Governments have tried to stop the practice. They've pitched alternatives, they've banned it, they've fined farmers for continuing to do it and they've even thrown a few of them in jail.

They've also tried to reward good behaviour - in 2019, the Supreme Court ordered a clutch of northern states to give 2,400 rupees ($32; £24) per acre to every farmer who didn't burn stubble.

Mr Singh, who didn't do it last year, was hoping to get this reward. "We waited a whole year, but we got nothing," he says. "So, like many others, I decided to burn the stubble this year."

In August, the Punjab government admitted they couldn't afford to pay so many farmers. "I don't know any farmer who has been paid this," says Charandeep Grewal, a farmer.