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Environmental
Information System (ENVIS)
Realizing 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/
organizations in the country that are actively engaged in work relating to
different subject areas of environment. ENVIS has, therefore, developed a
network of such participating institutions/organizations for the programme
to be meaningful. 25
ENVIS Centres have been established 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 Centres have
been assigned responsibilities to
achieve the Long-term &
Short-term objectives. The Focal Point offers a number of services.
ENVIS India due to its comprehensive network has been
designated as the National
Focal Point (NFP) for INFOTERRA, a global environmental information
network of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The activities of NFP
among others include providing environmental information to users in
South-Asia Sub-region. ENVIS India has also been designated as the
Regional Service Centre (RSC) of INFOTERRA of UNEP in 1985 for the South
Asia Sub-Region countries.
A programme on Environment Management
Capacity Building of the World Bank (ENVIS-EMCB):
ENVIS
(Environmental Information System) is implementing the World Bank
assisted Environment Management Capacity Building Technical Assistance
Project (EMCBTAP) since January 2002. The program is designed to give an
impetus to local, national, and world environmental information with an
aim to:
To achieve this aim 78 ENVIS Nodes
have been set up till date and another 18 are to be established.
The Nodes are classified as:
ENVIS Nodes – Out of the 25 ENVIS Centers
23 have consented to serve as ENVIS-Nodes on assigned subject
areas.
ENVIS Institutional Nodes – 18 peer Institutes which
have expertise on specific subject areas form this segment of the Nodes.
ENVIS NGO Nodes – 9 NGOs are networked together who
work on varied subjects related to environment. ENVIS Government Nodes – 28 Government departments
form this segment at present which are to prepare the State of the
Environment Report for the State. All the Nodes have also been categorized under 7 heads to
enable networking of Nodes working on related subject areas. The mission of ENVIS is to support and facilitate the
diverse group of clientele from policy makers to researchers and
Industries and common man at national and international level on a
possible range of environmental data and information through a nation-wide
web enabled network. The on going World Bank assisted program of the
ENVIS, aims to provide a comprehensive environmental information data base
under the identified subject areas, local conditions and issues pertaining
to the environment of the country. This programme is a continuation of the Sustainable
Development Networking Programme : India (SDNP-India) programme,
funded jointly by the UNDP and IDRC, Canada.
The information on other related activities of the
Division can be accessed on the following heads:
Shri Harjit Singh Senior Advisor (EI, MoEF) and National Project Director (ENVIS-EMCB Project) Environmental Information Division Ministry of Environment & Forests Paryavaran Bhavan CGO Complex, Lodhi Road New Delhi - 110 003. Telephone: +91-11-2436 4687 Fax: +91-11-2436 0678 Email: harjit-s@nic.in |
