Resource detail

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: (i) agricultural damage from soil salinity, water logging and soil erosion, (ii) rangeland degradation, (iii) deforestation and (iv) 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 (a process known as benefit transfer). Data limitations have prevented estimation of degradation costs at the national level for coastal zones, municipal waste disposal and inadequate industrial and hospital waste management. It is doubtful, however, that costs of degradation and health risks arising from these categories are anywhere close to the costs associated with the categories considered. Furthermore the estimates provided do not account for loss of non-use values (i.e., values people have for natural resources even when they do not use them). These could be important but there is considerable uncertainty about the values.