Union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Shivraj Singh Chouhan jointly held a high-level review meeting on stubble burning at Krishi Bhawan on Tuesday, issuing strict instructions to states to monitor fields for farm fire incidents after 3 pm – when farmers are likely to burn stubble residue to evade satellite detection.
Even as farm fire counts have been declining across northern states year-on-year, multiple studies have recently suggested a trend in which farmers are setting their fields ablaze later in the day, thereby evading satellite detection and presenting an inaccurate picture of the ground reality.
In the meeting, union environment minister Yadav called for the need to intensify ground-level monitoring and enforcement measures to prevent stubble burning, with special monitoring required in the key districts of Sangrur, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Patiala, and Gurdaspur in Punjab and Kaithal, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Ambala, and Fatehabad in Haryana – to assess crop harvesting trends.
“The environment minister has emphasised that monitoring should not rely solely on satellite data and has asked district collectors to conduct on-the-ground assessments and strengthen enforcement action to make efforts to curb crop residue burning more effective,” said the Ministry in a statement.
The statement also added that strict monitoring of stubble burning should be maintained through ground patrolling and flying squads during the satellite monitoring gap window (when farm fires are not captured on satellite) after 3 pm.
Chouhan, meanwhile, issued a clear message to the states – to take action on a war footing to prevent stubble burning.
“We have to provide farmers with easy, accessible and affordable alternatives,” he told states, asking for crop residue machines to be provided to farmers at the earliest.
What the data shows
Referring to data from September 15 to October 12, he said that while there has been a significant reduction of 53.3% in the incidents of stubble burning in Haryana and around 32% in Uttar Pradesh as compared to last year, however high cases in both Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were a cause of concern – asking both states to identify affected districts and villages and immediately implement a special action plan.
Punjab has also seen a marginal decline compared with the same period last year, he said.
Yadav has also stressed the need to link stubble burning data with the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) and the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for effective monitoring, adding it was important to provide forecasts of likely harvest times in the coming days and monitor meteorological conditions affecting air pollution levels in the National Capital Region ( NCR ) so that necessary action can be taken accordingly.
States have already begun utilising drones for the first time to capture stubble-burning incidents in real time. In July, CAQM issued a detailed standard operating procedure (SOP) and framework for using drones in Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan this upcoming winter season to detect crop-burning incidents in real time.
The SOP had asked for drone deployment to be conducted preferably between 3 pm and 9 pm – when farmers are more likely to attempt to evade satellite detection.
What prompted the instructions
Last year, multiple studies showed several farmers were burning fields late in the evening – to avoid being captured by satellite imagery, resulting in an overall lower farm-fire count. India’s polar-orbiting satellites complete their overpasses and capture crop-burning incidents typically between 10:30 am and 1:30 pm.
One such study, released by the environmental think tank the International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology (iFOREST) in December 2025, found this was true in both Punjab and Haryana, with most fires observed after 3 pm—hours when the government’s monitoring systems were simply not capturing data.
Another study by ISRO scientists had noted a similar trend.
“We observe a gradual temporal shift between 2021 and 2024, with peak fire activity occurring around 5 PM IST in 2024… At the same time, the window of fire activity narrowed substantially, suggesting an informed adjustment by farmers to avoid detection by polar-orbiting sensors,” the study, published in Current Science in November last year, had said.