India has ranked 155 out of 178 countries in Environmental Performance Index 2014. The 2014 Environmental Performance Index is a joint project between the Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (YCELP) and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University, in collaboration with the World Economic Forum and support from the Samuel Family Foundation and the McCall MacBain Foundation.
What is EPI Rank?
The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranks how well countries perform on high-priority environmental issues in two broad policy areas: protection of human health from environmental harm and protection of ecosystems. Within these two policy objectives the EPI scores country performance in nine issue areas comprised of 20 indicators. Indicators in the EPI measure how close countries are to meeting internationally established targets or, in the absence of agreed targets, how they compare to the range of observed countries.
What are these Indicators?
These two objectives, Environmental Health and Ecosystem Vitality, are divided into nine issue categories that span high-priority environmental policy issues, including air quality, forests, fisheries, and climate and energy, among others. Underlying the nine issue categories are 20 indicators calculated from country-level data and statistics.
India's performance in these Indicators
India's performance in these indicators is below average but below is an image from their website which shows the trend as compared to last decade in each of the parameters. The health impacts and agriculture have increased as compared to last decade slightly but the major increase India has shown is in Water & Sanitation.
- Environmental Health
Health Impacts - India's Rank 127
Health Impacts measures the probability of death between a child’s first and fifth birthdays. During this time, causes of death are strongly influenced by environmental factors, including air pollution, airborne particulates, and lack of access to clean drinking water. The probability of child mortality has decreased from 0.04 in 1990 to 0.01 in 2012 and thus our rank has improved which is a positive start. This shows that the health facilities in India have improved in the last decade. However, we still rank 127 in this indicator which should be improved.
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| Health Impacts |
Air Quality - India's Rank 174
Air Quality measures population-weighted exposure to fine particulate matter and percentage of the population burning solid fuel for cooking. It is a issue which has 3 parameters under it.
- Average Exposure to PM2.5 - The average exposure to PM2.5 value has increased from 19.83 to 31.98 in the last decade. There has been a 40% decrement due to higher exposure of people to PM2.5.
- PM2.5 Exceedance - The score India has got is 0 out of 100! that's a shame! The value of PM2.5 exceedance has increased from 0.45 to 0.71 and it shows a 100% decrement due to high exceedances in the PM2.5 concentrations in the ambient atmosphere.
- Household Air Quality – Indoor Solid Fuel Usage - It measures the percentage of the population burning solid fuel (biomass such as wood, crop residues, dung, charcoal and coal) for cooking. Its value has decreased from 87 in 1990 to 58 in 2010. There has been a 32.91% improvement in the last decade in this parameter. This shows people are moving to more refined products which are less polluting in nature.
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| Air Quality |
Water and Sanitation - India's Rank 124
Water and Sanitation tracks percentage of population with access to improved drinking water sources and improved sanitation, including pit latrines and toilets. This index has shown an improvement of 54% in the last decade which is a tremendous achievement for our country.
This category includes two indicators:
- Access to Drinking Water- This parameter takes into account the percentage of people who have access to safe drinking water. This has increased from 70.3 to 91.63 since 1990 which shows the accessibility of people to safe drinking water is increasing.
- Access to Sanitation - This parameter takes into account the percentage of people who have access to safe and secure means of sanitation. Our score in this is 6.2 out of 100 which is tremendously low, however there has been a 68% increment in the score in the last decade.
These indicators show that our water and sanitation problems are decreasing, however we have a long way to go.
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| Water & Sanitation |
2. Ecosystem Vitality
The parameters in Ecosystem Vitality include Water Resources, Agriculture, Forests, Fisheries, Biodiversity and Habitat, and Climate and Energy. Out of all these, only Agriculture has shown some improvement in these years. Agricultural subsidies and pesticide regulations have been imposed to a certain extent which is really important for a country like India as the main occupation here is agriculture.
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| Agriculture |
In rest of the parameters, we have a long way to go to. Our environmental health is on an increase, so now we need to focus on ecosystem vitality. Climate, Forests, Biodiversity also need to be preserved for a better functioning of our ecosystem. In energy sector, we have shown improvement in the access to electricity by making it accessible even in remote areas.
The following figure shows are performance in these rest of the parameters:
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Ecosystem Vitality Indicators
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155 out of 178! We surely need to work a lot harder to improve our Environmental Performance Index!
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