India Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

deforestation; soil erosion; overgrazing; desertification; air pollution from industrial effluents and vehicle emissions; water pollution from raw sewage and runoff of agricultural pesticides; tap water is not potable throughout the country; huge and growing population is overstraining natural resources; preservation and quality of forests; biodiversity loss

Environment - international agreements

party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protection, Antarctic-Marine Living Resources, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 65.2 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 2,407.67 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 559.11 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north

Land use

agricultural land: 60.5% (2018 est.)

arable land: 52.8% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 4.2% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 3.5% (2018 est.)

forest: 23.1% (2018 est.)

other: 16.4% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 36.4% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 2.33% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 0.14% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 1.15% of GDP (2018 est.)

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: very high (2020)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A and E, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: dengue fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, Japanese encephalitis, and malaria

water contact diseases: leptospirosis

animal contact diseases: rabies

note: clusters of cases of a respiratory illness caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) are being reported across 27 States and Union Territories in India; as of 9 December 2022, India has reported a total of 44,674,439 cases of COVID-19 or 3,237.27 cumulative cases of COVID-19 per 100,000 population with a total of 530,653 cumulative deaths or a rate 38.45 cumulative deaths per 100,000 population; as of 8 December 2022, 72.48% of the population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 168,403,240 tons (2001 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 8,420,162 tons (2013 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 5% (2013 est.)

Major lakes (area sq km)

salt water lake(s): Chilika Lake - 1,170 sq km

Major rivers (by length in km)

Brahmaputra (shared with China [s] and Bangladesh [m]) - 3,969 km; Indus (shared with China [s] and Pakistan [m]) - 3,610 km; Ganges river source (shared with Bangladesh [m]) - 2,704 km; Godavari - 1,465 km; Sutlej (shared with China [s] and Pakistan [m]) - 1,372 km; Yamuna - 1,370 km; Narmada - 1,289 km; Chenab river source (shared with Pakistan [m]) - 1,086 km; Ghaghara river mouth (shared with China [s] and Nepal) - 1,080 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Indian Ocean drainage: Brahmaputra (651,335 sq km), Ganges (1,016,124 sq km), Indus (1,081,718 sq km), Irrawaddy (413,710 sq km)

Major aquifers

Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 56 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 17 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 688 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

1.911 trillion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding India on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of India 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about India 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.