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“Though data gaps remain a major concern, the report is important because it joins the dots and interprets whatever data is available and existing to make a factual statement on environment and development.,” said Richard Mahapatra, managing editor of Down To Earth (DTE), which co-published the report with CSE.
The data made it clear that 2024 was a watershed moment. It was India’s warmest year on record, with 25 states experiencing record-breaking rainfall.
“Extreme weather events occurred on 88 per cent of the days in 2024, marking a sharp rise in both frequency and impact since 2022. Natural disasters induced by extreme weather and other reasons emerged as the primary drivers of internal displacement,” Rajit Sengupta, associate editor of DTE and one of the authors of the study .
Extreme weather events triggered 5.4 million internal displacements, nearly half in Assam, marking the highest climate-linked migration since 2013. Floods alone caused two-thirds of the displacement, the report found.
India’s greenhouse gas emissions reached their highest global share — 7.8 per cent — since 1970. More worryingly, the rate of emissions growth has accelerated in recent years, rising by nearly one percentage point between 2020 and 2023 alone, it stated.
The country continued to overdraw its groundwater reserves, with 135 districts now extracting water from depths exceeding 40 metres — nearly double the number in 2014. Toxic heavy metals were found in almost half of the country’s monitored river sites in 2022. Despite its 2026 deadline, the government has remediated only half of its legacy waste, the report said.
Waste of all kinds is soaring. E-waste rose by 147 per cent in just seven years. Plastic waste, despite a partial ban, hit a record 4.14 million tonnes in 2022-23. Forest diversions for development reached a decade-high last year, with 29,000 hectares cleared, mostly in states like Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, the report stated.
These diversions, which disrupt wildlife corridors, are one of the causes of the country’s rising human-animal conflict rates, said Kiran Pandey, programme director at CSE. “In 2023-24, human deaths due to elephant attacks rose by 36 per cent compared to 2020-23. Tiger attacks caused 82 human deaths during this period, marking the second highest toll since 2020,” she said at the launch of the report.
Air pollution continues to extract a deadly toll. Since 2021, residents in 13 Indian capitals, including Delhi, have breathed unsafe air one in every three days. Life expectancy in Delhi is nearly eight years shorter due to air pollution. In Lucknow, it is over six years.
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