Over 17 Lakh Deaths In India Due To Air Pollution In 2022: Lancet Contradicts Government Stance

Over 17.18 lakh deaths in India can be linked to air pollution, says a new Lancet report released on October 29, 2025.

The Lancet's ninth edition of the ‘Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’ which is prepared in collaboration with several UN agencies including the World Health Organisation also said that Indians had experienced a record number of hours of heatwave exposure in 2024.

This contradicts the Union government's stance that there is no data to link air pollution to deaths in India, as claimed by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav in a December 2024 written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. The government had no conclusive data to establish a direct correlation between death or disease exclusively due to air pollution, he had stated.

Jadhav had also said that air pollution is one of the aggravating factors for respiratory ailments and associated diseases. He had added that the health effects of air pollution are a synergistic manifestation of factors which include food habits, occupational habits, socioeconomic status and medical history of individuals.

According to the latest Lancet report, globally, in 2024, air pollution from wildfire smoke could be linked to 1,54,000 deaths, which is a record-high. In 2022, the report states that approximately 2.5 million deaths every year could be linked to the air pollution that comes from the use of fossil fuels. The report concluded that in that year, In 2022, per the report, air pollution-related deaths costed about 4.84 trillion US dollars, which is about 4.7 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“Climate change threats to human health and survival continue breaking concerning records, while delayed, and oftentimes reversed, actions exacerbate the threats on health and survival," the report says.

In a press statement, Marina Romanella, the executive director of the Lancet Countdown at UCL, London, said: “This year’s health stocktake paints a bleak and undeniable picture of the devastating health harms reaching all corners of the world – with record-breaking threats to health from heat, extreme weather events, and wildfire smoke killing millions. The destruction to lives and livelihoods will continue to escalate until we end our fossil fuel addiction and dramatically up our game to adapt.”

The report points out that approximately 1,60,000 lives are saved every year as countries shift away from coal.

“We already have the solutions at hand to avoid a climate catastrophe – and communities and local governments around the world are proving that progress is possible. From clean energy growth to city adaptation, action is underway and delivering real health benefits – but we must keep up the momentum. Rapidly phasing out fossil fuels remains the most powerful lever to slow climate change and protect lives. At the same time, shifting to healthier, climate-friendly diets and more sustainable agricultural systems would massively cut pollution, greenhouse gases and deforestation, potentially saving over ten million lives a year," Romanella added.

Heat exposure in 2024 resulted in a loss of 247 billion potential labour hours per year, another record-high 419 hours per person – which is 124 percent more than in 1990-1999. Per the report, the agriculture sector accounted for 66 percent of these losses, and the construction sector accounted for 20 percent. The associated potential income lost from labour capacity reduction due to extreme heat in India was USD 194 billion in 2024 alone.

The report’s indicators linked to agriculture and health also found that between 2001 and 2023, India lost a cumulative total of 2.33 million hectares of tree cover, of which 1,43,000 were lost only in 2023. The main reason? Forestry.

“We do have data on really high levels of air pollution related deaths in India,” said Romanello, lead author of the report, at a virtual press conference on October 23. “However, the focus on energy access in India is enormously encouraging.”

“We’re hoping that in countries like India, there can be a much more rapid progress to cleaner fuels as this would not only avoid an increase in greenhouse gas emissions but also allow cheap local energy access, independence from fossil fuels and very volatile fossil fuel markets,” she said. 

“The opportunity is there [in India],” she added.

In July 2024, the Union environment ministry claimed in a press release that there was “no conclusive data available to establish a direct correlation of death exclusively with air pollution.”

Air pollution is one of the many factors affecting respiratory ailments and associated diseases, and health is impacted by a number of factors including food habits of the individuals apart from the environment, the government said.

A year later, they repeated the same paragraph, almost verbatim:

“There is no conclusive data available to establish a direct correlation of death exclusively by air pollution. Air pollution is one of the many factors affecting respiratory ailments and associated diseases. Health is impacted by a number of factors which include food habits, occupational habits, socio-economic status, medical history, immunity, heredity etc. of the individuals apart from the environment.”

This was part of a written reply by the Union environment ministry to the Rajya Sabha in July this year, in response to the findings in the World Air Quality Report for 2024 published by Swiss-based technology company IQAir in March 2025. The report said that India was the world’s fifth-most polluted country when it came to fine particulate matter, a major air pollutant.

Of the 100 most polluted cities in the world in 2024, 74 were Indian cities.

Global Data

As per the report, heat-related deaths have surged by 23 percent across the world since the 1990s, to 5,46,000 a year – all due to the failure in curbing the warming caused by climate change. In 2024 alone, air pollution from wildfire smoke was linked to a record 1,54,000 deaths, while the global average transmission potential of dengue has risen by up to 49 percent since the 1950s.

Around 2.5 million deaths every year are attributable to the air pollution that comes from continued burning of fossil fuels, the report noted. In 2022, per the report, the monetised value of air pollution-related mortality was USD 4.84 trillion, equivalent to 4.7 percent of the global GDP.

“The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown exposes a world in turmoil,” the report noted. “Climate change threats to human health and survival continue breaking concerning records, while delayed – and oftentimes reversed – actions exacerbate the threats on health and survival.”

On the other hand, an estimated 1,60,000 lives are being saved every year as countries shift away from coal, the study noted.