State of India’s Environment Report, 2022

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About the report-

• This is an annual publication of the Center for Science and Environment and  Down To Earth,  that focuses on climate change, migration, health and food systems. 
• It also covers biodiversity, forest and wildlife, energy, industry, habitat, pollution, waste, agriculture and rural development.
• This 9th annual edition also offers a special assessment of the state of development in the States through graphical analysis and data.
• As per this report, India is behind on at least 17 key government targets that have a deadline in 2022. The slow progress made so far means that the deadlines are unlikely to be met.
• These targets have been set in a wide array of fields and sectors from economy and employment, to housing, agriculture, land records, sustainable environment and energy—and are a sharp compass of the progress made by the country.
• The target for the economy is to raise the gross domestic product to nearly $4 trillion by 2022-23. 
• The target for employment is to increase the female labour force participation rate to at least 30 per cent by 2022-23; it stood at 17.3 per cent in January-March 2020.
• The targets for Housing are to construct 29.5 million housing units under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)-Rural and 12 million units under PMAY-Urban (only about 46.8 per cent and 38 per cent respectively of the targets under ‘Housing for All’ have been achieved).
• When it comes to provision of drinking water, the target is to provide safe piped drinking water to all by 2022-23; only 45 per cent of the target has been achieved.
• Under Agriculture, the target is to double farmers’ income by 2022. While the average monthly income of an agricultural household has increased to Rs 10,218 from Rs 6,426, this increase is largely due to increase in wages and income from farming animals.
• The share of income from crop production in the average monthly income of an agricultural household has, in fact, dropped — to 37.2 per cent in 2018-19, from 48 per cent in 2012-13.
• Regarding the digitisation of land records, the target is to digitize all land records by 2022. 
• While states like Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Odisha have made good progress, states like Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and Sikkim languish at 5 per cent, 2 per cent and 8.8 per cent digitisation of land records, respectively.
• Overall, the target is unlikely to be met, particularly because 14 states have witnessed deterioration in the quality of land records since 2019-20.
• With respect to Air pollution, the target is to bring down PM2.5 levels in Indian cities to less than 50 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m3). In 2020, when vehicular movement was restricted due to the pandemic, 23 of the 121 cities monitored for PM2.5 exceeded 50 µg/m3.
• As part of Solid waste management, the target is to achieve 100 per cent source segregation in all households. 
• The overall progress is 78 percent; and while states like Kerala and Union territories like Puducherry have achieved the target, others like West Bengal and Delhi are woefully behind. 
• Manual scavenging is targeted for eradication, but India still has 66,692 manual scavengers.
• With respect to increasing the forest cover, the target is to increase it to 33.3 percent of the geographical area, as envisaged in the National Forest Policy, 1988. By 2019, 21.67 per cent of India was under forest cover.
• Under the Energy sector, the target is to achieve 175 GW of renewable energy generation capacity by 2022. Only 56 per cent of this target has been achieved thus far.

Performance of the Indian states-

• Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are below the national average in 11 and 14 SDGs, respectively whereas Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh fared best.  
• With respect to SDG 1 (poverty eradication), six of the poorest performers include Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. 
• All these states — along with Meghalaya, Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra and West Bengal — also feature in the list of worst performers as far as ending hunger and malnutrition is concerned (SDG 2).
• In water and sanitation (SDG 6), the performance of Delhi, Rajasthan, Assam, Punjab and Arunachal Pradesh is a cause for concern.
• SDG 7 — related to clean and affordable energy — has seen an above average performance, with most states achieving the target.
• In climate action (SDG 13), 13 states and two Union territories score below the national average. Odisha tops the good performance chart, followed by Kerala, Jharkhand and Bihar bring up the rear.

Further reading: https://journalsofindia.com/sustainable-development-goals-of-the-un/

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