Apple growers to move court for ban on orchard waste burning
Apple growers are mulling to move court over the “lack of adequate action” by the district administration, pollution control board, forest and environment departments to check the practice of burning orchard waste during the winter.
“We will plead with court to pass an order to ban the burning of orchard waste that has become a massive threat to our health, environment and climate,” said Shiv Pratap Bhimta, secretary, Paryavaran Sarankshan Samiti, Kotkhai. The Samiti has been raising this issue with various departments for the past many years.
“The National Green Tribunal has banned the burning of paddy straw. Similarly, the burning of orchard waste should also be banned. Also, the responsibility to check this nuisance should be fixed. Currently, neither the government nor the administration, pollution control board, forest or environment department are doing enough to control this ever growing menace,” said Bhimta.
Following Bhimta’s complaint in 2020, the Pollution Control Board had prepared a report on the matter. “The report mentioned that burning of orchard waste had become alarming as it was causing widespread pollution, causing various health and environment problems,” said Bhimta.
“The report even advocated banning orchard waste like paddy straw and imposing financial penalties on the offenders. However, nothing has been done on these lines so far even though the problem is getting worse,” said Bhimta.
The Pollution Control Board maintains that it has been trying to check the problem through awareness and preventive measures. “We have been holding awareness campaigns against the practice through panchayats and our resource persons. We are educating growers about the environmentally safe disposal of the waste. But if a complaint is made with evidence, we do take action,” said Anil Joshi, Member Secretary, Pollution Control Board.
Meanwhile, the administration also seems helpless in curbing the problem, mainly due to the scale at which orchard waste is burnt. “The administration can issue notices to the offenders under the law related to public nuisance. The problem is that the majority of the growers burn orchard waste, so how many notices can one issue?” said a government official.
“If there’s a law that bans orchard waste burning or there’s an order to this effect from the court, the administration will be in a better position to check this nuisance,” the official said.
Harish Chauhan, a progressive grower from Rohru, said the orchard waste burning could be one of the reasons behind the decreasing snowfall and rainfall in the apple belts in winters. “For the third straight winter, there has been excessively inadequate snow and rain, posing a massive threat to apple cultivation. Awareness campaigns have yielded little result. If we have to save apple industry, the burning of orchard waste will have to be banned,” said Chauhan.
Chauhan is not wrong in linking waste burning to change in local weather. According to a weather official, a large scale burning of biomass could alter local weather in the long run through huge amount of carbon emissions. “Besides banning this practice, the government should offer subsidies on shredders to encourage farmers to make manure of the waste through composting,” he said.
