India cannot afford to pollute its way to prosperity: Congress

He slammed the Modi government for stating in the Rajya Sabha on December 9, 2025, that there is “no conclusive data” linking air pollution directly to deaths or disease.Ramesh said a similar claim had earlier been made in Parliament on July 29, 2024, calling both statements insensitive and contrary to scientific evidence.Citing recent studies, Ramesh said a July 2024 Lancet paper showed that 7.2 per cent of all deaths in India are associated with air pollution, around 34,000 deaths annually in just 10 cities.An August 2024 study by the International Institute of Population Sciences, based on NFHS-5 data, found a 13 per cent rise in premature adult mortality and nearly a 100 per cent increase in child mortality in districts exceeding national air quality standards.He also referred to a December 2024 study in The Lancet Planetary Health, which estimated that long-term exposure to polluted air leads to about 15 lakh additional deaths every year in India compared to WHO-recommended exposure levels.A November 2025 report by the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation linked nearly two million deaths in India to air pollution, a 43 per cent increase since 2000, with about 70 per cent of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease deaths attributed to polluted air.



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