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Realising the importance of Environmental Information, the Government of India,in December, 1982, established an Environmental Information System(ENVIS) as a plan programme. The focus of ENVIS since inception has been on providing environmental information to decision makers, policy planners, scientists and engineers, research workers, etc. all over the country. Since environment is a broad-ranging, multi-disciplinary subject, a comprehensive information system on environment would necessarily involve effective participation of concerned institutions/ organisations in the country that are actively engaged in work relating to different subject areas of environment. ENVIS has, therefore, developed itself with a network of such participating institutions/organisations for the programme to be meaningful. A large number of nodes, known as ENVIS Centre, have been established in the network to cover the broad subject areas of environment with a Focal Point in the Ministry of Environment & Forests.
Both the Focal Point as well as the ENVIS Centre have been assigned various responsibilities to achieve the Long-term & Short-term objectives. For this purpose, various services has been introduced by the Focal Point. ENVIS due to its comprehensive network has been designed as the National Focal Point (NFP) for INFOTERRA, a global environmental information network of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). In order to strengthen the information activities of the NFP, ENVIS was designated as the Regional Service Centre (RSC) of INFOTERRA of UNEP in 1985 for the South Asia Sub-Region countries.
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What is ENVIS
ENVIS is a decentralised system with a network of distributed subject oriented Centers ensuring integration of national efforts in environmental information collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination to all concerned. Presently the ENVIS network consists of Focal Point at the Ministry of Environment and Forest and ENVIS Centres setup in different organisations/establishments in the country in selected areas of environment. These Centres have been set up in the areas of pollution control, toxic chemicals, central and offshore ecology, environmentally sound and appropriate technology, bio-degradation of wastes and environment management, etc.
ENVIS focal point ensures integration of national efforts in environmental information collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination to all concerned
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ENVIS-Nodes
• Thirty Six Institutions and Fifteen NGOs. These nodes are supposed to create websites on specific environment related subject areas.
• To strengthen ENVIS in disseminating information pertaining to environment and
sustainable development, ENVIS India is in the process of establishing Eighty
Five ENVIS Nodes by involving Organizations, institutions, Universities and
Government departments working in diverse areas of environment. ENVIS India has
already established Eighty One partner nodes, which include Thirty government
departments,
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The responsibility of the ENVIS Centes and Nodes are :
• Identification of information gaps
• Publish newsletters and Bulletins.
• Establishment of linkages with all information sources, and creation of data bank on selected parameters in the subject area assigned .
• Develop library facility and provide support to the focal point on the subject area. Most importantly serve as interface for the users on the assigned subject..
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Responsibilities
• Organising training and seminars
• Monitoring and reviewing of ENVIS
• Responding to user queries directly or through the ENVIS Centres
• Publication of a quarterly abstracting journal Paryavaran Abstracts
• Bringing out various other publications on current awareness services
• Farming guidelines and uniform designing procedures for ENVIS Centres
• Identification of data gaps and knowledge gaps in specified subject areas
and action to fill these gap
• Liaison with relevant International Information Systems and other national information systems
• Collection, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information on areas in which ENVIS Centres have not been established and in some general areas of environment like environmental research, environmental policy and management, environmental legislation, environmental impact assessment, etc
• Establishment of Data Bank containing data on some selected parameters, and computerisation in important application areas of environment
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Responsibilities of ENVIS Centres
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Responding to user queries
• Bringing out newsletters/publications in their subject area for wide dissemination
• Establishment of linkages with all information sources in the particular subject area of environment
• Coordination with the Focal Point for supplying relevant, adequate and timely information to the users
• Building up a good collection of books, reports and journals in the particular subject area
of environment
• Establishment of a data bank on some selected parameters relating to the subject area
of Environmentent
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ENVIS Centre Long-term
Objectives:
• To build up a repository and dissemination center in Environmental Science and Engineering
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To gear up the modern technologies of acquisition, processing, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information of environmental nature
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To support and promote research, development and innovation in environmental information technology
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ENVIS Centre Short-term objectives :
• To promote exchange of information amongst developing countries
• To promote, support and assist education and personnel training programs designed to enhance environmental information processing and utilisation capabilities
• To promote, national and international cooperation and liaison for exchange of environment related information
• To build up storage, retrieval and dissemination capabilities with the ultimate objectives of disseminating information speedily to the users
• To provide national environmental information service relevant to present needs and capable of development to meet the future needs of the users, originators, processors and disseminators of information.
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The ENVIS scheme is headed by: |
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Dr. Anandi Subramanian, IES
Senior Economic Advisor,
Ministry of Environment,
Forest & Climate Change,
Room No. A424, 4th Floor,
'Agni' Wing,
Indira Paryavaran Bhawan,
Jor Bagh Road,
New Delhi - 110 003
Ph(O): 011-24695367
Fax: 011-24695430
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Maharashtra State ENVIS Center |
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This Center is a State Government Centre functioning under Environment Department, Goveronment of Maharahtra, Mantralay, Mumbai.
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Location : |
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Environment Department,
Govt of Maharashtra,
New Administrative Bhavan, 15th Floor,
Madam Kama Road,
Mantralaya,
MUMBAI - 400 032, Maharashtra, India
Phone : 022-22029388
Fax : 22025946
Mail: mah-env@nic.in
Web: http://mahenvis.nic.in/ |
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