Environmental Information Centre

Campus Location: Mumbai

Located in The Environment Information Centre (EIC) at EPTRI is developed as a central facility to procure and disseminate environmental Information Resources. EIC’s activities include IT Services, Library and Environment Information System (ENVIS) . The Ministry of Environment and Forest, Govt. of India, has appointed EPTRI as the Distributed Information Center for the Eastern Ghats region of India. EIC Collaborates with the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), Sweden.Environmental Information Centre (EIC) has been setup by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), India as a professionally managed clearinghouse of Environmental Information on the Indian sub-continent. EIC provides comprehensive, easy-to-use environmental data on India and information on the environmental clearance process and environment regulations in India. The integrated environmental database on India is derived using the Geographical Information System (GIS) and includes pollution data. It eases the preparation of environmental impact assessment (EIA) to expedite the environment clearance process., 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 Center, 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 Center 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 Center (RSC) of INFOTERRA of UNEP in 1985 for the South Asia Sub-Region countries., 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 Centers setup in different organisations/establishments in the country in selected areas of environment. These Centers 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., Mission of EIC :, To provide high quality environmental data and information on India in a timely and cost-effective manner, to improve Environmental Studies, project screening & scoping, and the decision-making process., Environment Department, Government of Maharashtra has been hosting the ENVIS Center on Environmental Pollution, Management, Education, Awareness since 2002.The major objectives of this Center are collation, collection and dissemination of information in order to support and promote research, development, and innovation in Environmental Information Technology. The main focus of this Center is on providing Environmental Information to Decision Makers, Policy Planners, Scientists, Engineers , Research Workers and to the Public., This Center is engaged in several Information services viz. Abstracting, FAQ, Press clippings, Publications of Environmental Statistic Reports of Municipal Corporations/Councils, Annual presentation of State of Environment Report, Publication of book and articles on Environmental Pollution, Management, Education and Awareness, State Legislation, Development of database, Environmental Standards, Citizen's charters. The center has built up reasonably good information base in the form of publications, reports, reprints, bibliographic abstract and database in the subject areas since its inception., ENVIS Co-ordinator,, Environment Department, Government Of Maharashtra, 15th Floor, New Administrative Building,, Mantralaya, Mumbai - 400 032, Phone No. - 91+22-22855082, Fax. - 91+22-22025946. 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