Environment Information System (ENVIS) Awards Presented

moef-envis-awards-by-prakash-javadekar

A National Interaction-Cum-Evaluation Workshop for Environment Information System (ENVIS) recently took place in New Delhi. Environment Information System (ENVIS) is a Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change and has been implemented since 1982.

The purpose of the scheme is to integrate nation-wide efforts in environmental information collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination through ENVIS websites, which are dedicated to different themes. The ENVIS network consists of 69 Centres, of which 29 are hosted by the State Governments/UT Administrations while 40 Centres are being hosted by environment-related governmental and non-governmental organisations/ institutes of professional excellence.

Major users of ENVIS include Central and State Governments, institutes and individual scientists, researchers, students and agencies carrying out environmental impact assessment of projects, as well as the general public.

Speaking at the ENVIS Workshop, the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Prakash Javadekar highlighted that challenge before ENVIS is to find out new ways to reach out to people and how to popularise science and sustainable practices. He further emphasised the need to continuously upgrade each ENVIS centre.

During the Workshop, Environment Minister also distributed the award of the Best State ENVIS Centre to Forests, Environment & Wildlife Management Department, Sikkim and the award for the Best Thematic ENVIS Centre to Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru.

Shri Javadekar also released knowledge products of ENVIS Centres including

  • an ENVIS Bulletin on Ecology and Management of Grassland Habitats in India by WII ENVIS Centre,
  • a book on State at a Glance: Jammu & Kashmir Vol(1) 3, 2015 by GB Pant ENVIS Centre,
  • a book on Ecological Traditions of India – Gujarat – Vol. XI by CPREEC ENVIS Centre and
  • a Compendium on Environment in the Indian Parliament: 2011-2015 (CD format) by WWF ENVIS Centre

The Minister also released mobile applications including an ENVIS App (2.2 Version) on medicinal plants of Bengaluru City by FRLHT ENVIS Centre, etc.

A major highlight of the Workshop was the launch of an ENVIS Focal Point website http://envis.nic.in, a new initiative which runs parallel with the Digital India Objective. This ENVIS Focal Point portal will work towards improving the digital literacy in the environment sector and deliver services digitally all over the country.

The digitization of valuable data covering the broad spectrum of subjects on environment will serve as an asset in generating feature rich repository of information. This Portal will also bring all the other ENVIS Centres under one roof which will further facilitate convergence in data dissemination.

Top image:Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar presenting the Best ENVIS Center Award in New Delhi.

DG Correspondent

DG Correspondents are staff and members comprising writers, researchers and contributors of the Delhi Greens Blog team. Support Delhi Greens by sponsoring a post with your donation. Click here to Donate to Delhi Greens. Remember, it is in giving, that we receive.

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