TRANSFORMATION OF INHERITED ENGINEERING PROPERTIES OF SOIL DUE TO STUBBLE BURNING - A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Stubble Burning has put the state government as well as central government in deep thoughts. The smoke that emits from the farms comes in contact with the breeze to become smog that collectively moves southward affecting the entire belt of northern India including Delhi. Sometimes it becomes too difficult to breathe and public is forced to use breathing masks to avoid poisonous gas entering into their lungs. Research says inhaling such gaseous air is equivalent to smoking ten cigarettes at one go.  The concern does not restrict environmental degradation but has put the geoscientists to think of the issues related to low fertility and drastic change in the engineering properties of soil. To find the major changes in the engineering properties, this issue has been taken up. Three different locations have been randomly selected in a village of Tarn Taran district of Punjab bordering Pakistan. Soil samples were collected at the instance of pre burning and post burning period of stubble. Different engineering properties such as unconfined compression test, direct shear test and standard proctor test were studied. During the study it was surprisingly found that most of the properties are significantly reduced. The analyses of soil samples have shown a decline of direct shear test cohesion of soil decreased by 5.68 kn/m²after stubble burning and angle of internal friction increased  0.80⁰ as per the equation given by coulomb, where dry density of soil after stubble burning is changed by 0.95 kn/m³. In unconfined compression test compressive strength of soil changed by 2.5 kn/m² after stubble burning. In this study some remarkable changes in engineering properties were noticed before and after stubble burning. This implies stubble burning influences the engineering properties of soil on the whole.