New Delhi, Dec. 10 -- Farmers in the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana are burning paddy stubble late in the day, after monitoring satellites have passed over the region, according to a new study by the think tank International Forum for Environment, Sustainability and Technology (iForest), released on 8 December.

Mint explains how the study arrived at the conclusion and its implications.

What did the study find?

Burning of paddy stubble during the months of October and November is a significant contributor to poor air quality in North India.

In 2025, official figures from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), which uses active fire-count data from MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) and VIIRS...