 According to a recent report published by Landsat Planetary Health, air pollution was responsible for 16.7 lakh deaths in India in the year 2019. This is the highest number for any country. Such is the sorry state of affair in our country. One of the main contributors for air pollution, particularly in the winters, is stubble burning. Our national capital is continuously facing smogs in the winters due to stubble burning. Our government has taken various initiatives to address the issue. Before looking at the steps taken by the government to address this issue, let us first understand what is stubble burning? Stubble burning refers to burning of crop leftovers, particularly the crop residue of paddy crop. But what is stubble? See stubble is a stock of the paddy crop. It has become a common practice among the farmers in Punjab, Haryana and western UP to dispose of the paddy stubble and biomass by setting it on fire. We know that after harvesting, both the rice stock and the rice straw becomes crop residue. The farmers clear the leftover crop residue by burning the field as it is the cheapest way to clear the field of crop residue. Here also you may have a doubt. See the issue of stubble burning has been in use for the past decade or so. Why didn't the farmers involve themselves in stubble burning before 10-15 years? See it was because of two things. Earlier the farms were not mechanized. So this crop residue that is the paddy straw and the paddy stock was used to feed the livestock mainly the oxen and the cows. But now due to mechanization the role paid by oxen have reduced. So there is the excess production of crop residue. The other reason is earlier due to lack of irrigation farmers in Punjab and Haryana they did not involve themselves in the cultivation of paddy. But now due to irrigation there are paddy cultivation in Punjab, Haryana and in western UP has increased. So this is also the second reason why the issue of stubble burning has arisen in the last decade. See this is the basic about stubble burning. Now let us see the effects of stubble burning. See stubble burning generally occurs in the month of October and November after the cariff crop cultivation. See this period coincides with the winter months of North India. Due to cold conditions the air becomes heavier. What happens when the air becomes heavier? It does not raise up and the air settles down. Due to this the gas and the dust produced by stubble burning settles down and does not move elsewhere. So this is why stubble burning and smog formation over deli coincides. This is the first effect of stubble burning. Apart from this burning of stubble will also result in increased soil temperature which in turn results in killing of microbes that are present in the soil. See these two are the main effects of stubble burning. Both these effects are negative in nature. So to address these effects of stubble burning government has taken variety of steps. These steps taken by the government can be placed under two hits. One is inside two and another one is exit two. Here the inside two initiative includes efforts which are concentrated around and inside the fields where the stubble burning takes place. Initiative initiatives include the introduction of Pusa decomposer and short duration rice varieties. Now let us see about these two initiatives briefly. See Pusa decomposer is a liquid like compound which when sprayed on stubble will lead to relatively immediate decomposition of the stubble. So when the stubble decomposes very soon there is no need for the farmer to burn the stubble which causes air pollution. The second is introduction of short duration rice varieties. See short duration rice varieties helps in increasing the time period between cariff and robby cultivation. See at present the time period between the cariff and the robby cultivation is just three weeks. In these three weeks the farmers find it difficult to move the stubble from their farms to outside. This is why they find it very cheaper to burn the stubble but with short duration rice varieties this period can be increased. So it will be commercially viable for the farmer to move the stubble from their farms to a place like compressed biocast plant without burning the stubble. The types of short duration rice varieties include PR-121, PR-130 and PR-131. With increasing window between the cultivation and sowing of the next crop the need for burning of stubble comes down. These are the two insider initiatives taken by the government. Now coming to the excited initiative. Here the most important thing is rice bioparks. Rice bioparks are nothing but processing plants that convert rice residue into products like paper and cardboard. The concept of rice bioparks was mooted by M.S. Swaminathan who is the man behind green revolution. See Mr. Swaminathan states that when farmers are incentivized to provide the stubble to these rice bioparks at a price they will not burn their crop residue. Because when they burn their crop residue it will result in loss of revenue. So establishing rice bioparks will help mitigate the problem of stubble burning. The next important excited initiative is compressed biogast plants. See an assessment done by Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN shows that it is cost effective to use rice straw and rice crop residue for the production of compressed biogast. But what is a compressed biogast? To understand this let us compare it with compressed natural gas. See both compressed natural gas and compressed biogast are methane based gases. The CNG comes from the underground and it is a form of fossil fuel. Whereas the CBG that is the compressed biogast is made from fermented waste or other biological material so making it CO2 neutral fuel. See from this we can say that CBG is a form of recycled fuel. Here note that CBG is a component which forms a part of circular economy. But what is circular economy? Circular economy is a model of production and consumption which focuses mainly on reusing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. Now coming back let us see the components of CBG. CBG has methane content of more than 90% while CO2 content of less than 10%. This is similar to the commercially available compressed natural gas in composition and energy potential. So CBG can easily run in engines that use compressed natural gas. See the production of CBG is through anaerobic decomposition of biomass. The biomass normally used in the production of CBG includes agricultural residue like crop stubble, cattle dung, sugarcane and municipal waste. Having seen the components and the production method used for the production of CBG now let us see the advantages associated with CBG. See we already know that of the available fossil fuels like coal and petroleum CNG is considered the cleanest. And we also saw that the chemical composition of CBG and CNG are almost similar. So CBG has two advantages. One it is already the cleanest fuel. The other thing is it is CO2 neutral because it is a recycled fuel. So CBG helps in checking the CO2 in the atmosphere at check and it also is one of the cleanest fuel available. The next thing is when CBG production is amplified we can address the issue of landfills in the city. See management of solid waste is one of the important problem associated with urban areas. What happens when we leave the landfills unattended? It leads to the formation of methane which is one of the potent greenhouse gases. So if the forward and backward linkages of a CBG plant is properly planned and implemented the formation of landfills can be reduced. And in addition to this the waste in the landfill can be converted into useful compressed biogas which can be used in the production of electricity, household heating, cooking and the residue from the CBG plant can also be used as natural fertilizers. So this is the main advantage of compressed biogas. Finally before concluding this discussion let us see about sustainable alternative towards affordable transportation scheme that is SA-TAT scheme. But why are we discussing this scheme here? Because this scheme is related to CBG production. See SA-TAT is an initiative by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. This scheme which has a primary objective of increasing the production of compressed biogas by encouraging entrepreneurs to set up CBG plants. This scheme is mooted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. One to increase the production of CBG shows us reducing the solid waste production. The other thing is when the CBG production is amplified import dependence of India on foreign fuel is reduced. So due to these two advantages this scheme is proposed by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. To know more about environmental problems like stubble burning and the steps taken by the government to address these issues, follow the Daily Hindu News Analysis by Shankar I.S. Academy and subscribe to Shankar I.S. Academy's YouTube channel. Thank you.