Resource information
This report provides estimates of social
and financial costs of environmental damage in India from
three pollution damage categories: (i) urban air pollution,
including particulate matter and lead; (ii) inadequate water
supply, poor sanitation, and hygiene; (iii) indoor air
pollution; and four natural resource damage categories: (a)
agricultural damage from soil salinity, water logging, and
soil erosion; (b) rangeland degradation; (c) deforestation;
and (d) natural disasters. The estimates are based on a
combination of Indian data from secondary sources and on the
transfer of unit costs of pollution from a range of national
and international studies. The quantification and monetary
valuation of environmental damage involves many scientific
disciplines including environmental, physical, and
biological and health sciences, epidemiology, and
environmental economics. Estimates of the costs of
degradation are generally reported as a percent of
conventional gross domestic product (GDP). This provides a
useful estimate of the importance of environmental damages
but it should not be interpreted that GDP will increase by a
given percent if the degradation were to be reduced to zero.
Any measures to reduce environmental degradation will have a
cost and the additional cost goes up the greater is the
reduction that is made. Hence a program to remove all
degradation can well result in a lower GDP. This report
provides a measure of the overall damage relative to a
benchmark, in which all damages related to economic activity
are eliminated. The report is structured as follows: section
one provides a summary of estimated social and financial
costs of environmental damage; section two focuses on urban
air pollution; section three deals with water supply,
sanitation, and hygiene; section four focuses on indoor air
pollution; section five focuses on land degradation, crop
production, and rangeland degradation; and section six deals
with forest degradation.
