-Hindustan Times How is it that farmers, who were celebrated as national heroes and saviors of the country after the Green Revolution, are now criminalised and called irresponsible? If they are feeding the nation, isn’t the problem of stubble burning a collective responsibility? Attempts by a range of agencies to address the issue of stubble burning in Punjab have repeatedly failed. We suggest that this is not only because we’ve missed...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Environmental Pollution — from filthy air to contaminated water — is killing more people every year than all war and violence in the world. More than smoking, hunger or natural disasters. More than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. One out of every six premature deaths in the world in 2015 — about 9 million — could be attributed to disease from toxic exposure, according to a...

-The Pioneer Diwali is four days away, and the state of Delhi’s air has gone to the dogs with the National Air Quality Index (NAQI) stating on Sunday that air pollution has spiked to severest “dark red”, strengthening arguments of many who claimed that the Supreme Court was “misled into believing that banning firecrackers during Diwali would clean city’s air”. The worsening pollution level substantiates their argument that the problem lies somewhere...

-IANS With the central and state governments, and even the National Green Tribunal (NGT), coming down heavily on stubble-burning in Punjab and Haryana, farmers in both the states say they have few options available to avoid burning the crop residue. With a bumper paddy crop expected in the two agrarian states this kharif season -- likely in excess of 22.5 million tonnes -- the crop residue that will be burnt by farmers...

-Hindustan Times Farmer unions have been telling farmers to burn the straw until the government doles out some funds per acre for expenses that go into managing it by other means. Patiala: Seeking government aid to handle farm residue before following the ban on burning of paddy straw, farmer unions’ representatives collectively set fire to it in a 25-acre field at Shajju Bhatt village in Nabha to send across a message...