Fact Check: Stubble burning behind toxic air in Delhi post 2025 Diwali? ANI video is from 2024

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court allowed green crackers in response to a new BJP-led Delhi government plea, marking a reversal of its nearly seven-year blanket firecracker ban. However, Delhi’s air quality plunged to a ‘very poor’ level a day after millions of people celebrated Diwali with fireworks.

The air quality index (AQI) stood at nearly 350 on October 21, a five-year post-Diwali low despite a 77.5 per cent drop in stubble burning, which was normally a significant reason for air pollution in the national capital. The PM 2.5 levels reached shocking averages of 488 micrograms per cubic metre—nearly 100 times the exposure limit advised by the World Health Organisation.

Amid this, a video of stubble burning is being shared, with the claim that it is recent and the cause of pollution in Delhi after Diwali.

Sharing the video, an X user wrote, “This is the level of stubble burning going on in Punjab. This is a perennial cause of air pollution in Delhi and its suburbs.” (Archive)

Stubble burning is the practice of setting fire to the straw stubble that remains after grains have been harvested to quickly and cheaply clear fields.

Fact Check

NewsMeter found that the claim is misleading, as the video is from 2024.

A reverse image search of the video’s keyframes led us to the same footage published by ANI on November 1, 2024.

“Punjab: An incident of stubble burning seen in a field in Dagru village of Moga district,” read the post caption.

Does stubble burning contribute to Delhi’s pollution?

While stubble burning has historically been a major contributor, recent data tells a more complex story.

According to a Mint report from October 22, stubble burning incidents this October dropped 77 per cent due to unprecedented floods in Punjab and Haryana. Punjab recorded just 415 farm fire incidents between September 15 and October 21 this year, compared to 1,510 during the same period last year, India Today reported.

Despite this dramatic decline in stubble burning, Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) plummeted to its worst levels in five years on Tuesday morning, October 21, according to an analysis of Central Pollution Control Board data.

Post-Diwali PM 2.5 levels averaged 488 µg/m³—a staggering 212 per cent increase from pre-Diwali levels—revealed Climate Trends, a research organisation focused on environmental and climate change issues.

The data suggests that while stubble burning contributes to Delhi’s air pollution crisis, firecrackers during Diwali had an impact this year, even with significantly fewer farm fires in neighbouring states.

Therefore, we conclude that the viral video is from 2024 and is being falsely shared to claim that it is recent and has been the reason for pollution in Delhi post Diwali.