India, March 31 -- Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the three states that burn the most farm stubble, have proposed to shift more than 500,000 hectares where they grow non-Basmati rice to alternative crops such as maize, sugarcane and cotton, as part of a plan to minimise the fires that cause an air pollution emergency in north India every winter, the Supreme Court has been informed.

The action plans by the three states formed part of a consolidated report filed in the Supreme Court by the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), a central agency tasked with weeding out pollution in the National Capital Region (NCR).

The commission, following a series of meetings with the state authorities, collated the responses from the three s...