7,000 FIRs, no action: Punjab sits on farm fire cases

Over at least more than a decade, these farm fires have posed a serious health emergency for states and regions downwind.

Close to 7,000 FIRs were registered against farmers burning paddy stubble in Punjab between 2022 and 2024, but there has hardly been any action with most cases yet to result in a chargesheet, wound up after nominal fines or quietly closed under pressure from farmer unions, according to police records and senior officials in multiple hot spot districts.

Prior to 2024, cases were filed under the equivalent section of the Indian Penal Code Section 188.(PTI File Photo)

In 2024, Punjab registered 5,783 FIRs for farm fires, compared to 1,144 in 2023 and 44 in 2022. As of November 4, 972 FIRs have been registered this year. The police cases are part of a crackdown on a practice that is known to shroud much of northern India in toxic smog from late October to most of November, sending air pollution levels into health emergency levels for millions of people in these states.

According to police records, prosecution department data and district administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, the vast majority of FIRs have seen no follow-up action and remain pending in police stations or have been settled with minimal penalties.

Punjab government officials, including the Punjab Police nodal officer for farm fires and special DGP Arpit Shukla, did not respond to requests for comment.

For instance, in farm fire hotspot districts including Patiala, Sangrur, Muktsar, Moga and Faridkot, not a single FIR over the three-year period till November 1, 2025, has reached the stage of challan, or chargesheet, in court, according to the prosecution department data. These districts registered 1,875 cases in past three years.

In Amritsar, Tarn Taran, Bathinda and Ferozepur – other prominent districts with the stubble burning problem-- fewer than 100 cases combined have reached courts in the past three years, a senior prosecution wing officer told HT, asking not to be named. These districts registered around 3,000 FIRs in 2022, 2023 and 2024.

To be sure, the number of police cases itself reflects a minuscule proportion of the actual number of fires detected. In the three years – 2022, 2023 and 2024 – there were 46,752, 31,325 and 9,099 farm fires observed from satellites, according to data from Nasa’s Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS).

Over at least more than a decade, these fires have posed a serious health emergency for states and regions downwind. Every year, smoke from these regions spread out over the Indo-Gangetic plains, visually evident as thick white bands in satellite photos and numerically correlated with a surge in PM2.5 levels

“Most cases remain stagnant. Many were settled with nominal fines of ₹500 to ₹1,000. Several FIRs were withdrawn due to pressure from farmer unions,” said a senior police officer from Patiala district.

Beginning 2024, all farm fire FIRs are registered under Section 223 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, a section that lays down punishment for “disobedience of public orders issued by officials” — in this case, district magistrates’ orders against burning crop residue. The maximum penalty is six months’ imprisonment or a fine up to ₹5,000, or both.

Prior to 2024, cases were filed under the equivalent section of the Indian Penal Code Section 188 that carried mostly the same provisions, except for a milder maximum fine of ₹1,000.

HT is not considering cases registered in the current year to account for delays typical in cases proceeding to the prosecution stage.

A pattern of dropped cases

Investigations have been dropped in numerous cases where farmers claimed fires spread from neighbouring fields, a deputy inspector general (DIG) rank officer said, asking not to be named.

A second police official concurred, saying there were “several factors”.

“Punjab has a common practice of informal land contracts (theka) with no written agreements. Many cases were closed because FIRs were registered against landowners on record, while the actual cultivators were different people living elsewhere,” said an SHO-level officer in Jalandhar district.

Another reason, according to legal experts, is that Section 223 is inadequate for environmental violations as it does not directly address pollution damage.

“Section 223 is very mild section and even if a person is arrested in these cases bail can be taken immediately at SHO level,” said lawyer Himanshu Malik, who practises at the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Director of prosecution Punjab, Sukhpal Gill, however denied there was a trend of inadequate prosecution. “Farm fire cases have reached courts. I cannot comment exactly on the number as our district offices deal with such local cases,” he said.

Gill did not give details of how many cases reached the chargesheet stage over the three years.

Political hot potato

The real obstacle, officials and experts said, is political sensitivity.

“Farmers are politically sensitive class and are strong vote pocket. No government can afford to annoy them. My experience is even the administration, which is comprised of people from farming backgrounds, understand compulsion of farmers to burn straw but when court direct them to take action, they use mild sections so that they have something to show on paper. Even officers understand that FIRs against farmers won’t yield any outcome,” said former professor of Punjabi University Kesar Singh Bhangu, who is an expert in agrarian economy.

A significant intensification of the crackdown took place in November 2024, when the Supreme Court stepped in — a fact reflected in the FIR numbers: the year recorded 5,783 FIRs, a five-fold jump from the cases filed the previous year.

Another expert agreed that political sensitivities were a major deterrent against action. “The farm protests in 2021 were watershed moments for farmer community as the farmers made a powerful leader like Narendra Modi withdraw the controversial three laws. No state government now affords to come in direct conflict with farmers,” said Bathinda based political commentator Bakhtaur Dhillon.

A third senior Punjab police official, who asked not to be named, said both police and the state government are wary of the increasingly powerful farm unions and avoid heavy-handed approaches “fearing protests, road blockades or agitation outside government offices”.

“That is the ground reality. Punjab has got a culture now that farmer union get aggressive on even the smallest of issues and start troubling the public and administration by staging dharnas. General strategy of police remains to avoid conflict with farmer unions,” said a senior police officer from Muktsar.

“FIRs are registered primarily to satisfy the Supreme Court and central government, but are not pursued locally due to ground realities,” a senior district administration official in one of the three hot spot districts told HT, requesting anonymity.

Unions reject blame

Farmer unions pushed back against blame for pollution. “Various studies have shown that crop residue burning by Punjab farmers is not the primary cause of Delhi’s pollution. Why are the Centre and courts determined to portray Punjab farmers as enemies of humanity?” asked Manjit Singh Dhaner, senior vice-president of Bhartiya Kisan Union Ekta-Dakaunda.

Former chairman, Punjab Pollution Control Board (PPCB), Adarsh Pal Vig, said FIRs are the last resort to be used against farmers and advocated for a more practical approach of giving tillers alternatives, instead of wielding the threat of law – an approach he contended has shown better results.

“We need to understand that no democrat structure would afford to slap cases on farmers anywhere in India, and Punjab farmers have almost shun the habit of burning straw. Cases of fire have come down from almost 81,000 in 2022 to 10,000 this year. It is not because FIRs but because it took time for the government to provide alternate to farmers,” said Vig.

There have been 3,384 farm fires in the paddy harvesting season this year.

However, district officials said another punitive measure may also be leading to more deterrence: red entries in land revenue records.

A red entry is an official notation in the Jamabandi (land ownership record). While not an immediate punishment, it blocks access to government subsidies and schemes and creates obstacles for bank loans.

District officials say farmers respond more sharply to red entries because these affect credit access and land ownership reputation, unlike FIRs which “do not pinch”.

“In case of FIR, farmers know police won’t take action against them due to political pressure. In case of red entries, they know it may hamper their subsidies and would end getting loans on their lands,

This year, 1,222 red entries have been made in Punjab through November 4.

The government has also imposed environmental compensation amounting to ₹66.90 lakh, of which ₹32.60 lakh has been recovered.

Meanwhile, Samyukt Kisan Morcha has announced a symbolic demonstration in Chandigarh on November 19 against the registration of cases against farmers for burning straw.