Representational photo.
NEW DELHI: Air pollution killed nearly 1.7 million people in India in 2019, accounting for an alarming 17.8% of all deaths in the country in the year, a new paper written as a collaborative effort by Indian institutions that include ICMR has said.
The economic loss due to lost output from premature deaths and disease caused by pollution last year was estimated at around Rs 2.6 lakh crore, nearly 1.4% of gross domestic product (GDP) with Delhi suffering the highest per capita loss, followed by Haryana. The health and economic losses are higher than previously estimated.
The study was conducted by the India State-Level Disease Burden Initiativs a collaborative effort involving over 300 researchers from institutions like ICMR, Public Health Foundation of India, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation and others and assumes significance as it provides data from across different states for policy-makers. The findings show the per capita economic loss due t