News

Stubble Burning: States Asked To Ensure Non-Stop Supply Of Paddy Straw For Ex-Situ Utilisation

Paddy straw burning in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh is a major reason behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November

Published

on

Co-firing of paddy straw pellets (up to 10 per cent) with coal in thermal power plants is one of the important ex-situ stubble management strategies

New Delhi: The Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) has asked Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to formulate a policy to ensure continuous supply of paddy straw for ex-situ utilisation and co-firing in thermal power plants. Co-firing of paddy straw pellets (up to 10 per cent) with coal in thermal power plants is one of the important ex-situ stubble management strategies. Paddy straw is also used as in waste-to-energy plants, brick kilns and end products such as pellets, bio-fuels (bio-ethanol, compressed bio gas), particle board, panel furniture and packaging material.

Also Read: India Struggles To Put Out Crop Waste Fires That Fuel Air Pollution

Paddy straw burning in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh is a major reason behind the alarming spike in air pollution levels in the national capital in October and November.

Farmers set their fields on fire to quickly clear off the crop residue before cultivating wheat and potato.

Punjab generates around 20 million tons of paddy straw annually. Haryana and eight NCR districts of Uttar Pradesh produce around 7.5 million tons and 0.75 million tons of paddy straw on an average.

The National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC), a potential major user of paddy straw in thermal power plants, had earlier told the commission that it is technically feasible to co-fire paddy straw-based pellets (5 per cent to 10 per cent) along with coal.

Also Read: Most Cities Covered Under National Clean Air Programme Showed Improvement In PM10 Levels: Government

It informed that efforts have been initiated for the use up to 5 million tons of biomass pellets per annum in 17 plants.

The air quality panel has now directed the states to formulate a policy framework for “ensuring assured and continuous supply of raw material to plants utilising paddy crop residue”.

It also asked the states to utilise paddy straw pellets in their own thermal power plants in the NCR region “since huge quality of straw is available proximate to TPPs”.

States have been advised to develop low-cost, long-term paddy straw storage facilities and facilitate setting up of paddy straw pelletising units at strategic geographic locations to optimise supply chain logistics.

Also Read: PM2.5, PM10 Levels Were Above Safe Limit In Delhi Throughput Summer: Report

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.

[corona_data_new]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Exit mobile version