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Even as air pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region continues to remain at hazardous levels and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) indulge in a blame game, data shows that Punjab has recorded fewer stubble fires than Uttar Pradesh this year.
An analysis of the data on stubble-burning incidents between September 15 and October 21, 2025, showed that a total of 1,729 cases of stubble burning were recorded across six states—Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. During this period, Punjab recorded 415 incidents, the lowest figure in the past six years.
According to the Consortium for Research on Agroecosystem Monitoring and Modeling from Space (CREAMS) at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, the number of stubble-burning incidents in Punjab between September 15 and October 21 in the past six years were as follows:
· 2025: 415 incidents
· 2024: 1,510 incidents
· 2023: 1,764 incidents
· 2022: 3,114 incidents
· 2021: 4,327 incidents
· 2020: 10,791 incidents
When comparing the period from 2020 to 2025, Punjab has witnessed about a 96 per cent decline in stubble-burning cases.
Similar trends are seen in Haryana, another major paddy-growing state. Between September 15 and October 21, 2025, Haryana recorded 55 incidents of stubble burning. During the same period in previous years, the numbers were:
· 2024: 655
· 2023: 689
· 2022: 771
· 2021: 1,367
· 2020: 1,326
However, the situation in Uttar Pradesh, a neighbouring state of Delhi, is the opposite—stubble-burning incidents are increasing. In 2025, the state has reported the highest number of such incidents so far. According to the CREAMS bulletin, 660 incidents were recorded between September 15 and October 21 in Uttar Pradesh, making it the second-highest figure since 2020. During the same period in 2024, the state recorded 723 incidents.
The bulletin also states that 21 districts of Punjab reported stubble-burning incidents, with Tarn Taran (136 incidents) and Amritsar (120 incidents) topping the list. In Haryana, fires were reported in 14 districts, the highest being 15 incidents in Jind district.
In Uttar Pradesh, satellite data detected incidents across 58 districts, with Mathura, Barabanki, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur, Aligarh, and Fatehpur leading the list.
On October 21 alone, 268 stubble-burning incidents were recorded across the six states:
· Punjab: 62
· Haryana: 4
· Uttar Pradesh: 103
· Rajasthan: 41
· Madhya Pradesh: 58
Back in Delhi, the city’s Environment Minister, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, has alleged that Punjab’s AAP government is ‘encouraging farmers to burn stubble so that its impact is felt in Delhi’. AAP leader Saurabh Bhardwaj, meanwhile, has accused authorities of not disclosing pollution data.