Although air quality readings have consistently stayed above 500 for consecutive days, Kanpur, like most different Indian cities, lacks the infrastructure essential to combat air pollution, and has adopted few emergency measures. Farmers in India’s breadbasket states of Punjab and Haryana burn off rice paddy straw and stubble yearly in preparation for the winter sowing season. This 12 months, satellites started to detect a important number of fires in late October. Further evaluation of satellite knowledge showed the spike in fires has been shifting later into winter, when lower temperatures and weaker winds swell the accumulation of pollutants. The shift was pushed by a 2009 coverage change supposed to avoid wasting groundwater, which bars farmers from transplanting paddy seedlings till the center of June, as a substitute of a earlier date of mid-May. Rice is a terribly thirsty crop, and a few varieties require almost 5,000 liters of water for each kilogram of grain produced. Late sowing means a late harvest. With less time left for the winter crop, farmers are inclined to burn the straw to eliminate it rapidly. High in silica content, paddy straw cannot be used to feed animals. India’s monsoon also arrived a little late this year. After a June begin, it began withdrawing more than a month later than normal, inflicting but extra delay.