India ranks a low 125 in the Environment Performance report of the prestigious Yale University, which should be a wake-up call to Indian political leaders at all level, its officials said.

“India's low rank on the 2012 Environmental Performance Index (EPI) should be a wake-up call to Indian political leaders at all levels,” said Daniel C Esty, Director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy.

“India faces significant pollution control and natural resource management challenges and its lagging results suggest the need for redoubled policy efforts across the board,” said Esty.

According to the 2012 Environmental Performance Index, Switzerland leads the world in addressing pollution control and natural resource management challenge.

The report has been produced by researchers at Yale and Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum.

Latvia, Norway, Luxembourg, and Costa Rica round out the top five positions in the 2012 EPI, which ranks 132 countries based on 22 indicators across 10 major policy categories including air and water pollution, climate change, biodiversity, and forest management.

Besides India, among the emerging economies, China ranks 116th, reflecting the strain rapid economic growth imposes on the environment.

Brazil ranks 30th, however, suggesting that a concerted focus on sustainability as a policy priority will pay dividends - and that the level and pace of development is just one of many factors affecting environmental performance, the report said.

The United States places 49th in the 2012 EPI, with strong results on some issues, such as water and air pollution management, but weak performance on others, including greenhouse gas emissions and renewable electricity generation.

This ranking puts the US significantly behind other industrialised nations, including France (6th), the United Kingdom (9th), Germany (11th), and Japan (23rd).

In addition, the US ranks 77th in the Trend EPI rankings, suggesting that little progress has been made on environmental challenges over the last ten years.

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