5 things you didn’t know about the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009

The Air quality in Delhi and surrounding areas dipped to the  ‘very poor’ zone today, with the AQI reading reaching 360 in some places. Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai had on Thursday blamed stubble-burning in neighbouring Haryana and Punjab as the major reason behind the plunge in air quality in Delhi. A study done in 2019 has suggested a link between the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 and increased air pollution. What is the Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009? The law aims at conserving groundwater by mandatorily delaying the transplanting of paddy to beyond June 10, when the most severe phase of evapotranspiration (transfer of water from land to the atmosphere through evaporation from the soil and plant transpiration) is over. Farmers were forbidden from sowing paddy before May 10 and transplanting it before June 10. Haryana has a similar law. Why was this Act passed? Haryana and Punjab have the highest yields of rice and wheat in South Asia. Irrigation practices for these crops, however, pose a threat to the region’s groundwater levels that are being fast depleted. Paddy is procured by the government at minimum support price (MSP), and leads to over-exploitation of underground aquifers, as a very large number of tubewells (more than 14 lakh in 2015-16) running on free power pump out virtually endless amounts of water How is this Act linked to air pollution? Due to how this law operates, farmers are left with a very small window to harvest the paddy crop and prepare their fields for the upcoming wheat crop. Stubble burning is the quickest and cheapest option for farmers to get rid of paddy crop stubble. A combination of atmospheric and meteorological conditions ensure that the smoke cannot disperse easily. A part of the smoke from the farm fires is carried by westerly winds towards the NCR and further down the Indo-Gangetic plain Are there any laws banning or restricting stubble burning? The Central Pollution Control Board CPCB has issued comprehensive directions including control of stubble burning under Section 18(1)(b) of Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 to states for prohibiting or restricting the open burning of straw. There have also been instances of FIRs filed against farmers for stubble burning. Has the Supreme Court taken any action on this issue? Yes, as part of ongoing proceedings, the Supreme Court has appointed a one-man committee under former SC judge Madan Lokur to monitor the stubble fire and take preventive steps with help of chief secretaries of concerned states.