DTE warns 68% plastic waste unaccounted for in annual report on India’s Environment

New Delhi, June 3 (KNN) Unveiling the State of India’s Environment 2022: In Figures on Thursday, Down To Earth (DTE) highlighted that 68 per cent of solid waste remains unaccounted for, which means it is in the environment (land and water) or in dumpsites.

According to the annual e-book during 2019-0, India generated 3.5 million tonne of plastic waste out of which only 12 per cent was recycled, and 20 per cent was burnt, while rest remains unaccounted for.

India’ hazardous waste generation went up by 5 per cent between 2019-20 and 2020-21, while our e-waste generation increased by 32 per cent between 2018-19 and 2019-20, said the report.

The annual e-book is a compendium of data on environment and development assessed, analysed and presented by the magazine along with experts from Delhi-based non-profit Centre for Science and Environment.

“Most of the data that the volume carries is based on official government statistics that are available in the public domain,” said DTE Managing Editor Richard Mahapatra underscoring the need for steady analyses.

In view of agriculture the cost of cultivation has increased by almost 35 per cent (2012-13 to 2018-19), the share of the income from cultivation in an agricultural household has gone down to 37 per cent in 2018-19 from 48 per cent in 2012-13, said the report.

Simultaneously, 50 per cent of agricultural households in the country are reeling under debt — more than Rs 74,000 per household on an average. Some 29 farmers / farm labourers die by suicide in India daily.

The report has found that reducing air pollution to meet the World Health Organization’s standards would add 2.2 years to global life expectancy. In India, the life expectancy will go up by 5.9 years if the country meets the WHO levels of PM2.5.

In the current year, India recorded its hottest March, with an early onslaught of heatwaves. The country reported 280 heatwave days between March 11 and May 18, the highest in the past 10 years. 

This is almost double of what the country experienced in 2012, the second highest heatwave year in the past decade, noted the report.  (KNN Bureau)