CAQM Direction 96: Wheat Stubble Burning Requirements and the October 2026 Context

CAQM Direction No. 96 requires coordinated action to prevent and eliminate wheat stubble burning during the 2026 harvest season. Issued on 13 February 2026, it combines farm-level planning, machinery access, straw storage, supply chains, monitoring and enforcement. Its central concern is whether a farmer has a workable alternative to burning when the field needs to be cleared.

Original direction.

For readers in October 2026, the date and crop matter. This is a wheat-season direction, not a newly issued order for the ongoing paddy harvest. The later paddy direction, July monitoring guidance and October official reviews provide the current context. Reading them together is useful; merging their figures, deadlines or requirements would be misleading.

What Direction 96 requires, and from whom

The Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas (CAQM) issued the direction under section 12 of the CAQM Act, 2021. Paragraph 13 addresses the Governments of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. Paragraph 14 separately calls on Delhi and Rajasthan to make every effort to eliminate wheat-stubble-burning incidents during the ensuing harvest.

These are directions to governments and implementing authorities. They should not be repackaged as a new nationwide form that every farmer must submit personally. Farmers, machinery providers and straw users have practical roles, but the assigned administrative responsibilities must remain visible.

The document’s recitals describe earlier crop-residue planning, the advisory of 28 July 2021 and wheat-management discussions in December 2025. This history explains why the February instrument is more than an isolated announcement. It builds a seasonal implementation structure around state action plans. The recital is not, by itself, proof that each planned measure was delivered.

Read the historical fire counts with their full labels

Paragraph 5 records 10,207 fire events in Punjab, 1,832 in Haryana and 259 in Uttar Pradesh’s NCR districts during 1 April–31 May 2025, using the stated ISRO/IARI protocol. These are the historical figures cited when Direction 96 was issued. They are not the 2026 season’s final totals, nor a count for all of Uttar Pradesh.

A fire-event count should retain its measurement label. It is not automatically a measure of tonnes of straw, hectares burnt or the percentage of Delhi’s pollution attributable to that crop. Those are different questions requiring different evidence. The direction supports the concern about local and regional air quality; it does not supply a day-specific source-apportionment estimate for October.

When comparing reports, align crop, geography, monitoring period and method first. A partial-season update cannot fairly be placed beside a complete previous season and described as improvement or deterioration. Clear labels are part of accurate environmental reporting, not a minor footnote.

Start with the farm, not the machinery total

Direction 96 asks for every farm in all villages to be mapped to its proposed wheat-residue management route. It names options including crop diversification, in-situ management, ex-situ management and fodder use. In simple terms, in-situ management deals with residue in the field; ex-situ management involves handling it for use elsewhere.

The purpose is to connect an identified field with an arrangement that can actually be used. A district’s machine inventory cannot answer whether a particular farmer can obtain the right service at the required time. The planning record should make the proposed route understandable to the people expected to carry it out.

The direction also requires nodal officers to be tagged to farmer groups, covering all farmers in the district, with a maximum of 100 farmers per officer. This is a cap, not an instruction to allocate at least 100 farmers before assigning an officer. Contact arrangements and coverage deserve attention alongside the numerical limit. Direction 96, paragraph 13(ii)–(iii).

Machinery access must work during the harvest

Paragraph 13 requires timely availability and optimal use of Crop Residue Management (CRM) machines, particularly at peak harvest, through a mobile application. It also requires rent-free availability through Custom Hiring Centres (CHCs) for small and marginal farmers.

That qualification matters. The text identifies particular farmers and an institutional route; it should not be rewritten as a promise that every person receives every associated service free of cost. The clause does not itself resolve each question about fuel, operators, transport or local booking arrangements. Obtain the applicable scheme and centre-level information rather than inventing a universal entitlement.

For implementation review, ask whether the booking arrangement led to an actual service. Was a suitable machine available, was its operating condition known, and did the farmer know whom to contact when the arrangement failed? These are practical review questions, not extra statutory forms created by this article.

A useful record follows the service from request to completion. Merely recording the number of machines purchased or listed does not show which fields received assistance. That distinction becomes particularly important when many farms need access within a short period.

Storage and a year-round supply chain belong in the same plan

Direction 96 requires adequate and appropriate wheat-straw storage, including measures to minimise fire losses. It also calls for a District Level Supply Chain Management Plan considering demand and supply throughout the year, including ex-situ applications and fodder use.

This connects a seasonal field operation with a longer chain of collection, storage and use. A removal plan is incomplete if it ends at the field boundary without identifying where the material will go. Equally, naming a potential buyer is not evidence of an agreed collection arrangement, available storage or actual acceptance.

A practical planning conversation should establish responsibility at each handover: farmer to collector, collector to storage and storage to the intended user. Questions about quantity, timing and the receiving party help test whether the proposed route is workable. The direction does not guarantee a buyer, price or commercial return.

Its reference to fodder should also remain within its proper scope. It identifies a management use; it is not a technical certification that any particular stored material is suitable for every animal or feeding arrangement.

Monitoring, farmer support and enforcement are connected

The direction calls for a district or block-level Parali Protection Force, bringing together police, agriculture, administrative and other relevant officers. It also requires intensified late-evening patrolling and extensive Information, Education and Communication (IEC) activities.

The structure combines prevention and oversight. Awareness should tell farmers what assistance exists, how to obtain it and whom to approach, alongside explaining the adverse effects of burning. A campaign that only repeats a prohibition gives little practical information about the alternative route.

Paragraph 13(x) calls for appropriate Environmental Compensation (EC) charges to be imposed and realised for stubble burning. Direction 96 does not itself provide a new table of rupee rates. A specific assessment must be checked against the applicable provisions and competent process; this article does not assign a penalty to any individual case. Here, EC means Environmental Compensation, not Environmental Clearance.

Paragraph 15 requires monthly reporting of action-plan status to CAQM. A meaningful progress record should distinguish what was planned, what was provided and what was completed. A direction’s issue date is not an outcome certificate, and the word “elimination” expresses the objective rather than proving that no incidents occurred.

What a later wheat-season review actually recorded

CAQM’s 15 May 2026 release reported 8,986 Punjab incidents against 6,474 a year earlier, and 3,290 in Haryana against 1,503, for the same 1 April–14 May period. These are dated, like-period observations—not final 2026 totals or October figures. Commission review, page 1.

The paddy direction must retain its own identity

Direction No. 99, dated 15 May 2026, addresses paddy residue. Its nodal-officer provision specifies 100 farmers generally and 50 in hotspot villages. It also includes August 2026 machinery-procurement and district supply-plan milestones. Those are past milestones by this article’s October checking date, not upcoming deadlines. They should not be attributed to the February wheat direction.

Direction 99, paragraphs 12–14.

July guidance adds another monitoring document

CAQM’s communication dated 28 July 2026 discusses drone monitoring of paddy and wheat cultivation areas, especially hotspots. It calls for lawful, safe, systematic surveys, geotagged documentation and state-level evidence and reporting arrangements. The stated action-taken-report date was 14 August 2026. Drone-monitoring communication.

This is not a general instruction for farmers to purchase drones or permission to fly without complying with the applicable rules. A monitoring proposal also does not prove that every proposed deployment took place. Keep the instruction, the implementation record and any incident-specific finding separate.

The October 2026 context

The official 5 October update reports flying squads across 34 districts—18 in Punjab and 16 in Haryana—for 1 October–30 November 2026, with daily field reporting. This concerns the paddy season and is a different reporting stream from Direction 96’s monthly action-plan reports. Deployment update.

The 10 October release records visits on 9–10 October to Amritsar and Tarn Taran, alongside review of machinery access and supply-chain coordination. It describes official review activity; it is not an independently verified finding of complete prevention. District review.

The Agriculture Ministry’s 13 October joint-review release again emphasises working machinery, access for small farmers and links between farmers and end users during the paddy harvest. The practical message is consistent: a machine or proposed arrangement needs to function on the ground. The update should not be treated as a new wheat-season entitlement. Joint review.

The 16 October release adds a field review in Moga, including selected hotspot villages. It reports examination of paddy-residue management, machinery deployment, surveillance and coordination with district officials. This is the most recent crop-residue update included in this article’s source check. It extends the dated implementation context; it does not change the February wheat direction into an October paddy order.

Moga field review.

A useful review before the next planning cycle

For district teams and readers evaluating implementation, five records provide a practical starting point:

1. The crop, season, geography and applicable direction.
2. Farm-level management routes and nodal-officer coverage.
3. Machine requests, availability, service delivery and unresolved gaps.
4. Storage, collection and receiving-user arrangements.
5. Monitoring findings, action taken and the correct reporting period.

This is an editorial organising checklist, not an additional CAQM filing format. When planning for a later harvest, check the relevant updated action plan and instructions; do not automatically relabel 2026 deadlines as next year’s requirements.

Keep the original document beside any working summary. A useful summary identifies who is responsible, what is expected and which record would demonstrate the step taken. If assistance remains unresolved, the record should say so rather than converting a booking or proposed contact into completed service. The same discipline applies to a storage proposal and an actual receiving arrangement.

These distinctions help readers assess implementation without confusing a plan, an administrative report and a measured environmental outcome. They also make later updates easier to interpret: the next report can address the remaining gap instead of merely repeating the earlier announcement.

For wider regulatory context, see the site’s CAQM explainer and Knowledge Hub. The original instruments remain the reference for a particular requirement.

Frequently asked questions

1. Is Direction 96 an October 2026 paddy-burning order?

No. It was issued on 13 February for wheat-stubble management in 2026. The later paddy direction and October monitoring updates are separate documents. Identify the crop and instrument before transferring any requirement into an action plan.

2. What does the maximum of 100 farmers mean?

Direction 96 caps the group tagged to a nodal officer at 100 farmers while requiring coverage of all farmers in the district. It is not a minimum allocation, a limit on farm size or a count of villages.

3. Does rent-free machinery mean every associated cost is waived?

The clause concerns rent-free machine availability for small and marginal farmers through CHCs. It does not itself settle every associated service cost. Confirm the applicable local arrangement rather than promising all services free to every farmer.

4. Do the 2025 fire counts establish current air-pollution shares?

No. They are historical event counts for a stated period and geography. They are not pollution percentages, burnt-area totals or current air-quality measurements. Any such comparison needs an appropriate, separately supported measure.

5. Does the direction prescribe a new universal fine?

It requires appropriate Environmental Compensation to be imposed and realised but does not contain a new rupee-rate schedule. Check the applicable provisions and competent assessment before describing the consequence of an individual incident.

6. Are monthly reports proof that burning has been eliminated?

No. Reporting is an accountability requirement. Assess the evidence of implementation and outcomes separately. Planned activities, submitted reports and verified completion should not be represented as interchangeable statuses.

7. Can the 2026 instructions simply be copied for the next harvest?

They can inform preparation, but the applicable later action plan and instructions must be checked. Preserve crop-specific provisions and dates, review unresolved service gaps and confirm the current requirements before presenting a future-season checklist as mandatory.

Information checked as of 17 October 2026, 01:56 PM IST.

Original documents: PDFs and official updates

The first four references open the original PDFs; use your browser’s download or Save command for a copy. The other four references are official webpages. The review package includes backup copies of all four PDFs.

• S1 — CAQM Direction No. 96: wheat-stubble action plans 2026
• S2 — CAQM Direction No. 99: paddy-stubble action plans 2026
• S3 — CAQM: drones for monitoring stubble-burning incidents
• S4 — CAQM 28th Commission meeting: dated wheat-season review
• S5 — CAQM paddy-season flying squads: 5 October 2026
• S6 — CAQM district review and field visits: 10 October 2026
• S7 — Joint review of stubble management: 13 October 2026
• S8 — CAQM Moga field review: 16 October 2026