Haryana Raises a ‘Parali Protection Force’ and Adds FIR, Challan and Red Entry for Farm Fires

The news

Chandigarh. Haryana will deploy a “Parali Protection Force” made up of police personnel, Agriculture Department officials and administrative officers at the district and block levels to prevent paddy stubble burning, officials said on Thursday, September 24, according to a Press Trust of India report carried by The Hindu. Parali is the common north Indian word for the stubble and straw left in the field after the paddy crop is harvested. The State will also intensify late-evening patrolling and use drones to monitor farm fires, while providing farmers an incentive of ₹1,200 per acre for optimal utilisation of crop-residue management machinery. The steps are part of Haryana’s action plan to eliminate stubble burning ahead of the paddy harvesting season, with procurement set to begin soon. Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi on Thursday reviewed the State’s action plan for eliminating stubble burning and its compliance with the directions of the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), the statutory body that manages air pollution in the National Capital Region and adjoining areas. The enforcement plan stipulates three actions in every verified case of paddy stubble burning: registration of a First Information Report (FIR), a challan — a penalty notice — and a “red entry” in the farmer’s land record, an adverse marking in the revenue record of the land. Environmental compensation charges, a civil levy based on the polluter-pays principle, will also be imposed and recovered from violators, an official statement said. At the same time, the government says it is focusing on incentives and machinery availability to give farmers alternatives to burning. The State is providing a subsidy on the purchase of crop-residue management machines and plans to move balers, rakers and other machines between districts according to paddy harvesting schedules, so that the equipment follows the harvest. The report notes that stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana is often blamed for the rise in air pollution in Delhi-NCR, and that with a short window between the paddy harvest in October-November and the sowing of the rabi crop, particularly wheat, many farmers burn crop residue to clear their fields quickly. The papers do not give a count of this year’s fires or of last year’s prosecutions, so the scale of the problem Haryana is starting from is not stated. The syllabus link is GS3 on environmental pollution and conservation, and on cropping patterns and farm mechanisation.

Static syllabus linkage

1. The CAQM Act, 2021 created a statutory commission with overriding powers over NCR air. The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas Act, 2021 replaced an ordinance of 2020 and dissolved the Supreme Court-appointed Environment Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority. The Commission’s jurisdiction covers the NCR and adjoining areas of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh where a source of pollution affects air quality in the NCR. Section 12 empowers it to take measures and issue directions, which bind States and agencies, and its orders prevail over those of State pollution control boards in its area. The Act provides for penalties for non-compliance, but farmers who burn stubble are dealt with through environmental compensation rather than criminal prosecution under the Act.
2. Environmental compensation applies the polluter-pays principle, and the rates were doubled in 2024. Environmental compensation is a civil payment levied on a polluter to make good the damage caused, an application of the polluter-pays principle that the Supreme Court has recognised as part of Indian environmental law. The National Green Tribunal in Vikrant Kumar Tongad v. Union of India (2015) prohibited crop-residue burning in Delhi and neighbouring States and prescribed compensation based on landholding. Per a PIB release, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified amendment rules on environmental compensation for stubble burning under the CAQM Act on November 6, 2024, and Down To Earth reported that the rates were doubled, with farmers facing up to ₹30,000. Under the revised slabs, the charge is ₹5,000 for holdings below two acres, ₹10,000 for two to five acres and ₹30,000 for more than five acres.
3. Residue can be managed in the field or taken out of it. In-situ management keeps the straw in the field: the Happy Seeder sows wheat directly into standing stubble, the Super Straw Management System attached to a combine harvester chops and spreads the straw, and the PUSA bio-decomposer developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute is a microbial solution that helps straw decompose in the field. Ex-situ management removes the straw using balers and rakers, and uses it as fuel for biomass power, as feedstock for compressed biogas and second-generation ethanol, or as pellets co-fired with coal in thermal power plants. The Central Sector Scheme on promotion of agricultural mechanisation for in-situ management of crop residue, launched in 2018 for Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, subsidises machines at 50% for individual farmers and 80% for cooperatives and custom hiring centres. Custom hiring centres matter because small farmers cannot afford machines used for only a few weeks a year.
4. Groundwater laws of 2009 moved the paddy calendar and shortened the burning window. The Punjab Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 and the Haryana Preservation of Subsoil Water Act, 2009 prohibit transplanting paddy before notified dates in mid-June, so that transplanting coincides with the monsoon and reduces summer groundwater pumping. The laws achieved part of their water-saving aim, but they pushed the harvest later, leaving roughly two to three weeks before wheat must be sown for a good yield. Mechanised harvesting leaves loose straw and standing stubble that are costly to clear by hand, which makes a match the cheapest option. Assured procurement of paddy at the minimum support price keeps the rice-wheat cycle attractive, which is why crop diversification schemes such as Haryana’s Mera Pani Meri Virasat pay farmers to move out of paddy.

Why UPSC loves this

1. GS3 asks why stubble burning persists despite bans and subsidies. Mains questions have asked about the causes of air pollution in Delhi-NCR, the role of crop-residue burning, and the effectiveness of technological and policy responses. The expected answer weighs enforcement against incentives, and in-situ against ex-situ solutions, which is exactly the mix Haryana has announced.
2. Prelims tests the institutions, instruments and technologies. UPSC has asked about the Happy Seeder, the causes and constituents of smog, and the air quality index. The CAQM, its statutory basis, GRAP stages and the PUSA bio-decomposer are high-probability Prelims material in any year when the stubble season is in the news.
3. The issue connects agriculture, water and federalism. Stubble burning is also a federal question: smoke from one State harms citizens of another, and the Centre has created a commission with power over several States. Questions on inter-State externalities and on groundwater-driven cropping patterns in Punjab and Haryana can both use this story.

Analysis

1. Policing works only if the alternative is cheaper than the match. An FIR, a challan and a red entry raise the cost of burning, but a farmer compares that cost with the cost of clearing the field in time for wheat. If a baler or Happy Seeder is not available on the day he needs it, the fine becomes a tax he may choose to pay. Haryana’s plan to move balers and rakers between districts according to harvest schedules addresses exactly this point, and it may matter more than the new force. The counter-view is that without credible enforcement, even well-supplied farmers burn because it is quicker, so deterrence and machinery must work together.
2. The red entry is the most powerful and the most dangerous tool. A mark on the land record reaches the farmer where he cares most: his title, which underpins credit and land transactions. That gives it real deterrent force, far more than a one-time fine. But it is also a lasting penalty for a seasonal offence, and it will be contested if it is imposed on the wrong plot or on a tenant’s act recorded against an absentee owner. The plan’s phrase “every verified case” must mean verification on the ground, with a way to appeal and remove the entry, or the tool will generate grievances that outlive the smoke.
3. Criminalisation sits uneasily with the design of the CAQM regime. The CAQM framework deliberately treats farmers’ stubble burning as a matter for environmental compensation rather than jail, recognising that the offence has economic roots. An FIR in every verified case moves back towards the criminal route, which risks mass cases that clog courts and alienate farmers ahead of procurement. It also creates discretion at the police station, where enforcement can become selective. A graded response — compensation first, criminal action for repeat or large-scale violators — would be more consistent with the law’s intent.
4. The ₹1,200-per-acre incentive is the part that deserves scaling. Paying farmers for managing residue with machines turns a cost into an income and recognises that clean air is a public good produced on private land. The key design question is verification: payment must follow evidence that residue was actually managed, not just a claim. If linked to baler records, custom hiring centre receipts or geo-tagged photographs, the incentive can be both honest and quick. Its limit is fiscal, since a permanent subsidy for every acre of paddy entrenches the very crop that causes the problem.
5. The lasting solution lies in the cropping pattern, not the fire season. Paddy in Punjab and Haryana is sustained by assured procurement and cheap power for pumping, even though it depletes groundwater. The 2009 subsoil water laws saved some water but compressed the calendar and worsened burning, a textbook case of one environmental policy producing another environmental problem. Shorter-duration paddy varieties, which leave more time before wheat, and diversification into maize, pulses or other crops with assured prices would reduce both groundwater use and residue. Until the incentives change, each autumn will need a larger force for the same fires.

Administrator's brainstorm