Nearly 1.6 million Indians, Chinese died due to pollution in 2015

New Delhi: As per a report, close to 1.6 million people in China and India died due to pollution which was caused by fossil fuel.

The rise in air pollution caused due to the continuous use of fossil fuels, coal in particular, has raised the number of deaths to 1.6 million in both the nations.

Air pollution generally reduces as a country’s GDP increases. But China and India have particularly bad air pollution despite recent economic growth.

“Although air pollution death rates have fallen in China and India since 1990, they are still worse than in most similar countries. In India, rates have not improved since 2010. Continued use of coal is a major reason for the high air pollution death rates in both countries,” the report said.

In 2015, pollution claimed 138 and 115 lives per 1,00,000 people in India and China respectively, the report said.

The report further claimed that in India, the air pollution death rate was nearly four times greater than the rate in high-income countries.

Air pollution is among the top causes of premature death worldwide, causing only slightly fewer deaths than tobacco smoking.

In both China and India, indoor air pollution deaths are falling and the rate is now lower than the outdoor air pollution death rate, it said.