Environmental Performance Index of India
India’s performance on the global Environmental Performance Index (EPI) has been poor so far. The country ranked 155 out of 178 countries in a study conducted by Yale University in 2014 (Hsu et al., 2014). The study included nine indicators—air quality, water and sanitation, forests, health impacts, water resources, agriculture, fisheries, biodiversity and habitat and climate and energy.
The rank improved to 141 in a study of 180 countries for EPI in the year 2016 (Hsu et al., 2016). The rank further deteriorated to almost the bottom, at 177 out of 180 countries in 2018 (Yale News, 2018). This reflects the pressure of economic growth and population growth on the environment. Income, governance and policy choices impact environmental performance amongst the countries. India needs to focus on sustainability as a policy priority.
To study the environmental performance of Indian states, the Centre for Development Finance, Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai conducted a study on the Environmental Sustainability Index (ESI) for 28 Indian states. The ESI has been constructed as a composite index using 41 key environmental indicators which are further grouped into nine thematic sub-indices—air quality and pollution, water quality and availability, land use and agriculture, forest and biodiversity, waste generation and management, energy management, impact on human health and disaster, population pressure on ecosystem and environmental budget. Gujarat was found to be the least sustainable, among the comparable industrialised states in the country, with the overall sustainability percentile ranking between 0 and 20 whereas other industrialised states—Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu—were found to be moderately sustainable with a score ranging between 40 and 60. For the sub-index of water quality and availability, the z score, which represents the standard deviation from the mean, is negative for Gujarat as compared to Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, which have positive scores (IFMR, 2011).
A study by Mukherjee and Kathuria (2006) attempted to establish the EKC (Environmental Kuznets Curve) relationship between per capita income and environmental quality using 63 environmental indicators for 14 major Indian states (Mukherjee & Kathuria, 2006). The states are Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The environmental information for them is available for two broad periods: the early 1990s (1990—96) and the late 1990s (1997—01). The ranking of the states across different environmental criteria (groups) shows that different states have different strengths and weaknesses in managing various aspects of environmental quality. Thus, individual states should adopt environmental management practices based on their local conditions (at the most disaggregated level). Results indicate that the relationship between per capita income and environmental quality is non-linear and follows a slanting S curve, where all the states (except Bihar) show declining environmental quality. The low-income states have better environmental quality compared to their richer counterparts. Both agriculturally and industrially developed states like Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat and Maharashtra seem to have neglected their environmental issues.
The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in India has developed the Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) capturing various dimensions and levels of pollution of air, water and land. It carried out an environmental assessment of 88 industrial clusters across India in 2009 (CPCB, 2009) and found that 43 industrial clusters were critically polluted. Out of these 43, 6 were in Gujarat, 5 in Maharashtra and 3 in Tamil Nadu, the 3 most industrialised states in the country (see Chapter 2 for further details on the states). Based on the CEPI score, a moratorium had been placed on the expansions and new investments for industrial units in critically polluted industrial clusters like Vatva, Ankleshwar, Vapi, etc. The state had drawn action plans to improve the environmental conditions in these clusters including the up-gradation and increase in the capacities of the common effluent treatment plants (CETPs).
