Perceived ill effects of crop residue burning in Haryana

Abstract

Crop residue burning in open fields has become a major concern for global climate change mitigation efforts. The main focus of this study is to analyse the main reason behind the crop residue burning and perceived ill effects of crop residue burning. Study was done in two districts – Bhiwani and Kaithal, encompassing two blocks of each district and two villages from each block with random sample techniques with 200 respondents. This paper revealed that the main reason behind the burning of crop residue was a very short window of time between rice harvesting & wheat sowing followed by labour charged high wages for removing residue from the fields (80.5%). This paper also shows that ill effects of crop residue burning in three categories i.e. on atmosphere, on soil and on human. In both the districts majority of respondents (61.0% and 73.0%) were perceived ill effect global warming, deterioration of physical health of the soil (68.0% and 72.0%) and perceived the problems of bronchitis (84.0%), and respiratory problem (81.0%) respectively.