Visible or not, air pollution is turning out to be one of the biggest cause of mortality in India, with its toll rising sharply every year.
The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report, released on October 29, 2025, shows the toxic air claimed over 17 lakh lives in the year 2022 due to exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5), an increase of 38% compared to its estimation in 2010.
“There were over 1,718,000 deaths attributable to anthropogenic air pollution (PM 2.5) in 2022 in India, an increase of 38% since 2010,” read the India-specific report accessed by Down to Earth.
Authored by 128 experts from 71 institutions and UN agencies, the ninth edition of the report is the most comprehensive and reveals how pollution and heat-related risks are escalating across India.
The annual global assessment, prepared in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), links the worsening climate crisis to mounting health and economic losses worldwide.
These premature deaths from outdoor air pollution in India has also posed a burden on the economy with the additional cost of $339.4 billion (₹30 lakh crore) in 2022, amounting to 9.5% of the country’s GDP.
Pollution killed more than Covid in 2022
“The number of air pollution-linked deaths in 2022 was much more than the total number of COVID-linked deaths; underlining the enormity of the situation and cost of human health linked to air pollution,” Dr Arup Haldar, a pulmonologist told Down to Earth.
The Lancet report states that of the 1.7 million deaths from PM2.5, fossil fuel combustion was responsible for 44% —about 752,000 deaths. Coal alone accounted for nearly 394,000 deaths, primarily from power plants, while road transport-related petrol use caused 269,000 deaths.
Impact of household air pollution
Household air pollution also remained a major threat, causing 113 deaths per 100,000 people, with high mortality rates especially in rural areas.
Despite the mounting evidence, the Union environment, forest and climate change ministry has questioned such figures, calling them “statistical estimates with limitations”. The State of Global Air 2025 had earlier reported 2 million air pollution related deaths in India during 2023.
Pollution, the biggest killer in Delhi
According to the latest Global Burden of Disease data released this month by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), air pollution killed one in seven people in Delhi in 2023, accounting for nearly 15% fatalities.
Delhi’s poor air quality may pose the people living there at a greater risk of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and other pollution-related ailments. The long term impact of pollution is also seen in pregnant women and the unborn babies, according to health studies.
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