Top court asks states to stop crop burning as New Delhi’s air turns hazardous

India’s Supreme Court ordered authorities in the states surrounding New Delhi on Tuesday to stop farmers burning crop residue, as the air quality from smog engulfing the world’s most polluted capital during the past week reached hazardous levels.

Air quality dips every year ahead of winter, when calm and cold winds trap pollutants from sources including vehicles, industries, construction dust, and agricultural waste burning.

The court has issued similar orders in past years, with limited effect as state authorities report inability to control the burning despite fines and sometimes due to farmers’ hostility towards officials.

Delhi has stopped local construction, closed primary schools till Nov. 10 and will impose restrictions on use of vehicles next week to fight pollution, but it wants its neighboring states to control crop residue burning.

At 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, the real time air quality index stood at 306, a level categorized as “hazardous” by Swiss group IQAir.

“We direct the state government of Punjab and adjacent states to Delhi — Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh — to ensure that crop (residue) burning is stopped forthwith,” Supreme Court judge Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said.

Farmers in Punjab and Haryana usually burn crop stubble left behind after rice is harvested in late October or early November to quickly clear their fields before planting wheat crops.

The practice has been followed for years and the resultant smoke has typically accounted for 30 to 40 percent of Delhi’s October-November pollution, according to federal government’s air-quality monitoring agency SAFAR.

The federal and state governments have been offering subsidies on better harvesting machines and stubble decomposers to support farmers and make them realize the dangers of the practice which has reduced over the years but is still a major issue.