By : Sabatini Chatterjee and Satyaki Paul
Recently, the State of India’s Environment Report 2021 was launched by Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi. The report observed that India’s ranking fell to 117 out of the 192 participating countries. The new ranking is 2 ranks lesser in comparison to the 115 rank of State of India’s Environment Report 2020.
The report was based on following metrics: Air, Water, Development, Land and Agriculture, Health, Cities, Waste, Energy, Climate, Pollution, Poverty, and Education. In this context, the report observed that there are severe persisting challenges to ending hunger and achieving food security (SDG-2), achieving gender equality (SDG-5) and building resilient infrastructure, promoting inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and fostering innovation (SDG-9). All these SDGs are yet to be redressed through proper timely governmental interventions in a much larger scale than what is currently being done.
According to the report, India ranks stood below four neighbouring South Asian countries i.e., Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. And, the overall SDG score of India is 61.9 out of 100 which is very low considering our country’s efforts. In case ofstate-wise preparedness, the report observed that the state of Jharkhand and Bihar are the least prepared to meet the SDGs by 2030, which is the target year. Despite the fact Jharkhand lags in five of the SDGs, Bihar lags in seven. As per the report, the states/UTs with the top overall score which are on the path to accomplishing the SDGs are: Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.
According to the report, India ranked 168 out of 180 countries in respect to Environmental Performance Index (EPI).This Index is assessed on many indicators such as: environmental health, climate, air pollution, sanitation and drinking water, ecosystem services, biodiversity, etc. Furthermore, India’s was ranked 172 in the environmental health category, which is an indicator of how well our country is protecting their populations from environmental health risks.
So, in short, we can conclude that the report species the grim nature of our status quo. The reports are also in consonance to the NITI Aayog’s SDG Index 2020-21. The author works as a Research Assistant at the Cultural Research Institute, Kolkata under Backward Class Welfare Department, Government of West Bengal. And, the co-author works as a Ph.D. Research Scholar at the Department of Anthropology, University of Calcutta.