Abstract

Agriculture remains to be the backbone of Indian economy due to its larger share in the Indian economy and employment. Wheat and Rice cropping system are the most followed cropping systems in India. In some of the Indian northern states especially Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana most of the farmers harvest their crops by using the combine harvesters and it leaves a huge amount of stubble which took lots of time to get decompose in soil. The farmers burn a substantial portion of stubble on the farm. It causes an environmental pollution but it also troubles the human health and it directly affects the quality of air. It also causes problems in breathing, headaches, cough, eye irritation, some chronic problems like bronchitis, asthma, lung infections, and increase in the cardiac problems and also causes carcinogenicity causing congestion in the chest. Apart from that, the most dangerous visibility will be lower due to its burning and weather becomes smoggy which increases the events of road accidents. The stubble burning is against the human rights as it directly affects the health and environment and it clearly violates our human right i.e., the right to life. The clean and healthy environment is one of the basic essential human rights of individuals. There are enormous efforts done by the governments to curb this problem. Despite of the various rules and regulations the problem of stubble burning cannot be tackled. The Punjab government has started the stubble treatment plant at Sangrur. It seems that this problem is difficult to be solved by technical or legal interventions alone. There is a need to identify the determinants of certain behaviors to change them. Further, we will discuss in detail about the reasons, consequences, legislatives provisions and suggestions related with the stubble burning.