Clearing the air between India and Pakistan
25 April 2021
A farmer in Indian Punjab watches as the stubble on his field burns. The Punjab government pays farmers a small amount to hire labourers to clear stubble instead of burning it, but this amount is often too little.
Neha Thirani Bagri
A farmer in Indian Punjab watches as the stubble on his field burns. The Punjab government pays farmers a small amount to hire labourers to clear stubble instead of burning it, but this amount is often too little.
Neha Thirani Bagri
In early November 2020, ten kilometres from the border with Pakistan, Shinda Singh stood at the edge of his field in Bhura Kohna village, in Indian Punjab, watching it spew columns of black smoke into an already hazy sky. The previous day, he had finished harvesting his rice crop, leaving behind clumps of straw-like stubble a foot high. That morning, he had poured kerosene across his land and set fire to it. Within an hour, most of the stubble had caught fire, turning it from yellow to a deep, charred black.