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Comment by ghoomketu | Hacker News Reader

Speaking personally my life was hell when I was in delhi (it was ncr Ghaziabad) but the situation was so bad that my eyes were constantly red and one of my friends who had asthma had to wear a mask inside home.

Unfortunately despite a lot of efforts by the govt (like odd even cars, washing trees with firetrucks, etc) the situation was still very bad when I left it because of this very reason.

The major contributing factor was crop stubble burning by adj states which now the govt is trying to ban against a lot of resistance from the people (shrug)

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> ban against a lot of resistance from the people (shrug).

Actually, it is not the people but the farmers resisting crop burning.

OTOH, the people have resisted odd-even cars and firecrackers, and the central government ministers flouted these openly.

60% of the indian population works in the agricultural sector.

People = Farmers.

I realise this is an area where exact data is probably not available, but this site [0] says 41.49% of the workforce were employed in agriculture.

I've also seen a few pages claiming it's 60%, would like to know which source is more authoritative.

[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/271320/distribution-of-t...

Largest source of pollution is not even cars but the farmers burning stubble in nearby states. Now, the entire agriculture in these states is subsidized by government heavily. It is not very difficult to offer more subsidies to actually manually remove the stubble instead of burning it, but there is a lot of resistance from various groups for this.

You don’t have to do it manually nor do you require labour. There are no till/no burn methods to using seed drills .. but .. https://www.thequint.com/news/india/air-pollution-in-delhi-n...

[..] A happy seeder is a machine that helps farmers get rid of the crop residue without burning the straw. Hence it is considered the answer to the issue of stubble burning that is one of the biggest contributions to pollution in and around Delhi-NCR. The happy seeder not only removes residue but also allows the farmer to seed the new crop without involving manual labour. It is usually mounted on the back of a tractor. Typically, in the month of October, a farmer sows wheat while removing paddy straw in the process. However, despite the government subsidising happy seeders, not many farmers want to use the machine. Here’s why: 1) ‘Single Happy Seeder Can’t Till Land Beyond 8 Acres Per Day’ 2) Govt Subsidy Not Enough 3) Potato Growers Can’t Rely on Machine 4) Big Tractors Not Available 5) Moisture in Stubble Forces Farmers to Partially Burn It [..]

You know..there are solutions. Small acreage farm automation as a service. Unless India steps up and stops farming like they used to..it’s going to get ugly.

But I can’t even get small acreage robots going here in the US..so I am really the last person who should be thinking about this.

Stubble-burning contributes only for a short period of time during early winter. Granted, it is a significant contributor (over 40% this year) during this time. But Delhi's pollution is plenty bad over the rest of the year as well.

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