It was launched in 2009 with the aim of categorizing critically polluted industrial areas based on scientific criteria, so as to ascertain various dimensions of pollution.
It is a combined framework used to evaluate the impacts caused by industrial clusters on the nearby environment, as a numerical value.
It was developed by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) in collaboration with IIT Delhi. It was revised in 2016 by abolishing few subjective factorials. The evaluated CEPI score reflects the environmental quality of the identified industrial clusters and is a yardstick to assess the progress achieved in the implementation of pollution mitigation measures.
The industries are categorized as-
Industrial Sectors having Pollution Index score of 60 and above – Red category
Industrial Sectors having Pollution Index score of 41 to 59 – Orange category
Industrial Sectors having Pollution Index score of 21 to 40– Green category
Industrial Sectors having Pollution Index score incl. & up to 20 – White category
Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), an environmental NGO analyzed the 2018 Comprehensive Environmental Pollution Index (CEPI) air assessment score and found that Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra had the greatest number of ‘critically polluted’ industrial regions in India. As of Jan. 2020, over 100 polluted industrial clusters are being monitored based on the index score.
