An Analysis of Physical and Monetary Losses of Environmental Health
and Natural Resources in India

This study provides estimates of social
and financial costs of environmental damage in India from
three pollution damage categories: (i) urban air pollution;
(ii) inadequate water supply, poor sanitation, and hygiene;
and (iii) indoor air pollution. It also provides estimates
based on three natural resource damage categories: (i)
agricultural damage from soil salinity, water logging, and
soil erosion; (ii) rangeland degradation; and (iii)
deforestation. 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 study estimates the total cost of
environmental degradation in India at about 3.75 trillion
rupees (US$80 billion) annually, equivalent to 5.7 percent
of gross domestic product in 2009, which is the reference
year for most of the damage estimates. Of this total,
outdoor air pollution accounts for 1.1 trillion rupees,
followed by the cost of indoor air pollution at 0.9 trillion
rupees, croplands degradation cost at 0.7 trillion rupees,
inadequate water supply and sanitation cost at around at 0.5
trillion rupees, pasture degradation cost at 0.4 trillion
rupees, and forest degradation cost at 0.1 trillion rupees.