Dear Ashok Jain,
India is floundering in its efforts to protect its environment and is lagging behind some of the poorer Asian, African, European and South
American nations, says the 2008 Environmental Performance Index published by the Yale University in the US this month.
The biennial index tracks the environment of 149 countries based on the parameters of environmental health, air pollution, water resources, biodiversity and habitat, production natural resources and climate change. This is the fifth edition of the report.
India ranks 120 among 149 nations on the list of the environmental protection index with a paltry score of 60.3 on a scale of 100 - almost at the bottom of the heap of low-performing nations. The index rates the objective environmental health of the country at 62.6 and eco system vitality 58.0.
India is one of the largest democracies in the world with a prominent voice in the International Panel of Climate Change of the United Nations. The per capita gross domestic product (GDP) of India stands at $3,308 and the country's current population is 1103.4 million.
Smaller and poorer nations like Vietnam with a population of 84.2 million and a GDP of $2,925 rank 76 on the index with a score of 73.9 per cent. And Indonesia, with a population of 222.8 million, ranks 102 on the index. Poor African countries like Tunisia and Gabon rank 60 and 64 on the EPI index while China stands at 105.
"India has serious problems in natural resource and pollution management. Its response to the problem of environment pollution is weak and reflects the financial disparity in allocation of resources for eco-conservation. Poor governance adds to it," Daniel Esty, director of the Centre for Environmental Law and Policy at Yale University, said over telephone from the US.
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