A new report says that most stubble-burning incidents in Punjab and Haryana are now taking place after 3 pm, long after India’s satellites stop checking for fires each day. Because of this timing gap, many farm fires go unrecorded, affecting pollution estimates and air-quality planning.

The change has been drastic. In 2021, only around 3% of Punjab’s fires were spotted after 3 pm. Today, the number has shot up to more than 90%. Haryana has shown the same pattern since 2019.

But the problem is that satellites usually pass over these states from late morning to early afternoon. So, if fires start later in the day, they are simply not captured, making official fire counts much lower than what is actually happening on the ground.

Burnt-area mapping shows a fall of 37% in Punjab and 25% in Haryana. But experts say the actual decline may not be this big because the late-afternoon fires are missing from official satellite data. This also means that Delhi’s winter pollution, which rises dramatically during crop-burning season, may be worse than what the numbers suggest.

The group iFOREST has recommended adding geostationary satellite data, which checks the same area many times a day, to India’s fire-monitoring system. They also say air-quality models should be updated to include the fires that current satellites are missing.

The idea is simple: to make better plans for clean air, India needs a clearer and more complete picture of when and where these fires are happening.