Chandrayaan lessons to solve stubble burning
Hindustan TimesOn September 6, 2019, a few kilometres from the moon’s surface, Chandrayaan-2’s lander lost contact with the Indian Space Research Organisation and later crashed. But Chandrayaan-2 sent back data that provided valuable clues on why it failed – among other factors, the lander’s software could not handle the forces or manoeuvring needed to land safely, which the narrow confines of the landing site made worse. Delhi’s air is polluted by all burning – burning vehicular fuel, solid waste, stubble leftover from paddy harvests, and coal in power plants. This needs to be stopped now.” Then, data became available, showing that in November thus far, biomass burning played the biggest role in Delhi’s PM2.5 pollution, making up at least a quarter of the PM2.5 levels. This year, Punjab and Haryana together have seen over 20,000 instances of stubble burning thus far.