Morung Express News
Dimapur | June 5
How Nagaland is performing and dealing with key environment and climate change challenges? The third edition of NITI Aayog’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) India Index released on June 3 can offer some answers.
With a score of 61 out of possible 100, overall, Nagaland was ranked a ‘performer’ along with 13 other states. However, it was below the national average of 66 and Nagaland was ranked at ‘Bottom-5’ among the states along with 9 others.
Among the 16 goals used by the NITI Aayog to measure the Index in India, six goals are directly related with environment and climate change.
While the State usually scores strong environmental related parameters, the latest index highlighted that there were improvement over last year on three goals and falls on three.
On Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG No 6); Cities and Communities (11) and Climate Action (13) index, Nagaland’s scores improved while on Affordable and Clean Energy (7); Sustainable Sustainable Consumption & Production (12); and Life on Land (15), the State’s performance declined.
Gains and losses
While Nagaland scored a lowly 23 on Sustainable Cities and Communities in 2019, it doubled to 48 in 2020. However, with most others performing above the State on the particular target, Nagaland was ranked at bottom three.
Breakdown of the indicators under the goal informed that the State had faltered in percentage of: individual household toilets constructed against target under Swachh Bharat Urban (bottom 7th among 37 states & UTs); door to door waste collection (2nd lowest); waste segregation (4th lowest) and Urban Households with Drainage facility (bottom 3rd).
Nagaland along with 4 others - Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep did not have any capacity to treat their sewage generated.
On the bright side, Nagaland recorded the lowest rate of persons killed in road accidents per 1,00,000 population in urban areas and was among the nine states/UTs halving the number of deaths from road traffic accidents (from the base year 2015).
On Clean Water and Sanitation, Nagaland improved it scores from 75 in 2019 to 87 in 2020 and was ranked as a ‘Front Runner’ with a score of 87.
Among others, the index highlighted that Nagaland with 10 states have been able to provide the national target to provide access to improved source of drinking water to all the State and along with Manipur and Tripura have achieved target with all industries complying with waste water treatment under CPCB norms.
On Climate Action, with a score of 69, Nagaland was ranked 3rd among the states and UTs. Nagaland was least affected State with the Disability-Adjusted Life Year (DALY) rate attributable to air pollution 1,408 as against national average of 3469. DALY is a measure of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to ill-health, disability or early death.
Nagaland’s biggest fall was seen in the category of Life on Land (SDG 15). From a top performer in 2019 (94), the State's score decreased to 63 in 2020.
Based on report the National Remote Sensing Centre (2015-16), Nagaland had the second highest percentage of land degradation after Rajasthan at 47.1%.
Desertified area increased by more than 1 lakh hectares in Maharashtra, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Assam, Nagaland and Tripura, the report highlighted.
Though the State’s performance on “Sustainable Consumption & Production” was second best in India, it was a fall from a 100% score in 2019.
Among others, the report showed that there was 100% treatment of Biomedical Waste (BMW) in the State while the Per capita fossil fuel consumption among the lowest in India. Hazardous waste generated per 1,000 population (Metric tonnes/Annum) was also lowest in Nagaland.
