Respiratory ailments associated with crop residue burning in North India lead to an estimated economic loss of over $30 billion or ₹2 lakh crore annually, according to a soon-to-be published study.

The study, scheduled to be published in the forthcoming issue of the International Journal of Epidemiology , indicated that there has been a substantial increase in acute respiratory infections reported during the period in which stubble burning was intense.

The study, which among other things obtained data from India’s fourth round of District Level Household Survey (DLHS-4), found that there was a three-fold increase in respiratory ailments among those living in districts where intense crop burning takes place.

Poor air quality is a serious problem in Delhi during the winter months with the levels of airborne particulate matter spiking to 20 times the World Health Organization’s safety threshold during certain days.

Air pollution

“Among other factors, smoke from the burning of agricultural crop residue by farmers in Haryana and Punjab especially contributes to Delhi’s poor air, increasing the risk of ARI three-fold for those living in districts with intense crop burning,” said Samuel Scott, the co-author and research fellow at the Washington, DC-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), in a statement.

The study for the first time estimated the health and economic costs of crop residue burning in North India. According to the scientists, the estimated economic cost of exposure to air pollution from crop residue burning is $30 billion or nearly ₹2 lakh crore annually for Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

Significantly, according to another study published in the journal Nature Sustainability last week, nearly 60 per cent of sooty carbon particles found in Delhi’s air in October and November months emanate from crop residue burning in the neighbouring States.

Apart from Scott, others involved in the current study were Avinash Kishore and Devesh Roy of IFPRI, Suman Chakrabarti of the University of Washington, and Mohammed Tajuddin Khan of Oklahoma State University.

The study analysed health data from more than 250,000 individuals of all ages residing in rural and urban areas in India. It used NASA satellite data on fire activity to estimate the health impact of living in areas with intense crop burning by comparing them with areas not affected by burning such as areas in the South Indian States of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. The study used data between September 2013 and February 2014.

The researchers observed that as crop burning increased in Haryana, respiratory health worsened. They also examined other factors that could contribute to poor respiratory health such as firecracker burning during Diwali (which usually coincides with the time of crop burning) and motor vehicle density.

In fact, economic losses owing to exposure to air pollution from firecracker burning are estimated to be around $7 billion or nearly ₹50,000 crore a year.

comment COMMENT NOW