Dear Sir,Environmental sanitation is a major public health issue in India. India is still lagging far behind many countries in the field of environmental sanitation. Most cities and towns India are characterized by over-crowding, congestion, inadequate water supply and inadequate facilities of disposal of human excreta, wastewater and solid wastes. Most of the problems in the country are due to defective environment, which in turn rob people of their health, destroy their livelihoods and undermine their overall development potential.[1] According to WHO and UNICEF's Joint Monitoring Program for Water Supply and Sanitation (JMPWSS) Report which tracks the progress on drinking water and sanitation, with present pace of progress, India will achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) on sanitation only by 2054.[2]As per 2011 census, 68.84% population of India is residing in the rural areas[3] due to the same it becomes all the more important to assess the status of environmental sanitation in rural areas. To address this issue a house to house survey was planned to assess the status of environmental sanitation in rural field practice area of a medical college situated in Pune city. The questionnaire was prepared to determine various aspects of environmental sanitation. The survey was carried out in March 2012. 90 households from three villages namely in the rural field practice area of were covered. All the households surveyed had tap (piped) water supply which was predominantly irregular that is every 2 or 3 days in a week. Only 39 (43.33%) had the watertap located inside the house, while majority 51 (56.67%) outside the household. Due to irregular water supply other source like hand pump, wells and lake nearby was also used. All these other water sources were almost 2 to 3 km from majority of households. 59 (65.55%) household do not had toilet facility inside the house. As public toilets were not available in these villages, open defecation was highly prevalent. 79 (87.77%) households had collected waste material in the dustbin. Open disposal of waste material was done by 62 (68.89%) households due to lake of availability of any waste collection facility. In majority of the household surveyed, 87 (96.67%) households were using LPG as fuel for cooking. The findings of present survey are comparable with National Family Health Survey-3 findings related to sources of water, toilet facility which was conducted in 2005-06[4] almost six years earlier to the present survey. As per JMPWSS Report, in rural areas of India 67 % of the population had no access to toilets.[2]To conclude with, the environmental sanitation still remains an ignored issue in rural areas. In rural areas, local government institutions in charge of operating and maintaining the infrastructure are seen as weak and lack the financial resources to carry out their functions.[5] The situation of environmental sanitation is changing with a very slow pace. It requires concentrated and sustained efforts to raise the level of environmental sanitation in the country and especially rural areas, so as India will able to achieve Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of “Environmental Sustainability” in near future.