The study aims to gauge the symmetric effects of agriculture productivity on carbon–dioxide emissions in India during the post-reform era. The findings divulge the long-run symmetric association between agriculture productivity, economic growth, population growth, and CO2 emissions in India. The ARDL results demonstrate that increased agricultural productivity aggravates environmental pollution and deteriorates the environmental quality in India. The results also confirm that higher economic growth is not environmentally friendly in India because it increases CO2 emissions in India. Another surprising result is that the higher population growth negatively affects the CO2 emissions in India. These empirical findings require serious commitments by the Indian government to curb natural resource depletion by prioritizing more towards eco-innovations and green-energy initiatives. The proposed symmetric model offers unique insights for policymakers to enhance environmental quality and achieve environmental sustainability in India.