Months after the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) ranked India among the bottom five countries, the government today said the ranking needs to be interpreted in "due perspective" as it is based on a distinct methodology and involves "assumptions and uncertainties".
A report titled 'Environmental Performance Index 2018', ranking 180 nations has been produced by Center for Environmental Law and Policy, Yale University, and Columbia University in collaboration with World Economic Forum and Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.
According to it, India's ranking in Global Environment Performance Index (EPI) was 141 in 2016 and 177 in 2018.
"The rankings need to be interpreted in due perspective as it is based on distinct methodology and involves various assumptions and uncertainties.
"The methodology adopted to calculate EPI in 2018 varies from the earlier adopted methodology," Minister of State for Environment Mahesh Sharma told the Lok Sabha.
Also Read
According to EPI 2018, India's position plummeted by 36 positions from that in 2016 and is ranked among the bottom five countries.
Sharma said the 2016 EPI report included nine issues and 20 indicators but 2018 EPI report includes 10 issues and 24 indicators.
"The 2018 EPI gives a weightage of 40 per cent to Environmental Health and 60 per cent to ecosystem vitality. India's overall score for environmental health policy objective has shown substantial improvement.
"The decrease in score is on account of ecosystem vitality, which has been given higher weightage and at the same time, has higher subjectivity. India, with high population, would indicate higher exposure level in the absence of proper normalisation," he said.
The minister said the government has taken a number of steps to enhance implementation of existing environmental laws and regulations in order to restore environmental quality in the country.
These include, promotion of 24x7 real time online monitoring of emission and effluents of 17 categories of highly polluting industries, real time water quality monitoring through 44 monitoring stations on the Ganga river and two on the Yamuna, and 100 continuous ambient air quality monitoring stations in 61 cities, he said.
Further, inspections are being carried out by field functionaries of Central Pollution Control Board, State Pollution Control Boards and Regional Headquarters from time to time to improve the implementation of existing laws and regulations, Sharma said.
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
