India among 5 worst countries in terms of environmental health

NEW DELHI: A new index has ranked India as one of the bottom five countries worldwide in terms of environmental performance, slipping from 141 place in the last ranking in 2016 to 177 among 180 countries this year.

The latest global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) was released by Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum on Tuesday.

The EPI report ranks the countries on 24 indicators across 10 categories.

India’s ranks at the bottom in terms of environmental health, which includes air quality. India ranked near the bottom at 178 in terms of air quality alone.

The new report highlighted air pollution as a leading threat.

“These are just rankings,” Harsh Vardhan, environment minister said on Wednesday at a conference.

“We have been doing our work sincerely and will continue to do so. The rankings will take care of themselves.”

The ministry has emphasised its role in streamlining the process of giving environmental clearances, by reducing the number of days.

Environmental activists argue that this results in shoddy and rushed assessments of impacts on environment.

Environmental health also includes two other components of water and sanitation and exposure to heavy metals.

A recent report from the Health Effects Institute found that if India does not take any further measures to tackle the problem air pollution, the number of deaths linked to air pollution will triple from the current level of 1.1 million.