Environmental Performance Index ranks India in bottom 4

Citing a clutch of international studies, the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) — released earlier this week during the World Economic Forum in Davos — has said that India has seen a steady rise in premature deaths linked to air pollution while such deaths in China have begun to stabilise. The deaths largely talks about Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM2.5) pollution which refers to particles that are smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter.

According to the biennial EPI report, prepared by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with WEF, China and India combined made up approximately 52 per cent of the 4.2 million deaths globally in 2015. The report quoted studies of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and pointed out that each year approximately 5.5 million people die prematurely from air pollution.

The EPI ranks 180 countries on 24 performances indicators across ten issue categories covering environmental health and ecosystem vitality. The index ranked India 177 out of 180 countries, owing to its poor record in the categories of environmental health, air quality, water and sanitation, heavy metals, air pollution and average on record forests and agriculture. In the air-quality category, India has been ranked 178 in 180 countries and only Bangladesh and India are worse off than India.

Studies cited by the index showed that in urban areas, outdoor air quality caused respiratory ailments and in rural areas household pollution, caused by incomplete combustion of fuels and poor ventilation caused ailments. The World Health Organization estimated that incomplete combustion in households caused fine particle concentrations up to 100 more than acceptable levels.