Leachate pollution index (LPI) provides an overall pollution potential of a landfill site. In this paper, the concept of LPI is described in brief and stepwise procedure to calculate the LPI of a landfill is explained using data from municipal landfill sites of Ludhiana City, Punjab (India). These landfill sites do not have any base liner or leachate collection and treatment system. Therefore, all the leachate generated finds its path into the surrounding environment. LPI values indicate the leachate contamination potential of landfill sites in a given geographical area on a comparative scale and used as a hazard identification tool. It is an increasing scale index, where a higher value indicates poor environmental condition based on the Delphi technique. In the present study, leachate samples were collected and analyzed for 5 significant leachate pollutant variables viz pH, TDS, BOD5, COD and Chloride (Cl−). The LPI values of landfill sites i.e. 20.26, 26.45 and 23.39 indicated that the waste deposited has not yet stabilized. Leachate generated from these landfill sites were contaminated and proper treatment will have to be ensured before discharging the leachate into the surrounding environment. It is concluded that LPI value can be used as a tool to assess the leachate pollution potential from landfill sites particularly at places where there is a high risk of leachate migration and pollution of groundwater.