Environment Information System (ENVIS)
Environment Information System (ENVIS) is a one stop, web enabled and comprehensive portal which provides information on environment and related subject areas to researchers, academicians, policy planners, environmentalists, scientists, engineers and the general public. It is a decentralized network of databases in operation since 1982-83 (Sixth Plan) and is run by the Ministry of Environment Forests and Climate Change.
The network, as on October, 2016 consists of 70 Centres housed in reputed institutions, of which 30 Centres dealing with "State of the Environment and Related Issues", are hosted by the Environment/ Forest Department of State Governments/ Union Territory (UT) Administrations. Remaining 40 Centres, hosted by environment-related governmental and non-governmental organisations/ institutes of professional excellence, have thematic mandates, for instance, Renewable Energy, Pollution Control, Hazardous Substance Management etc. There are 38 such environment related themes on which ENVIS Centres are currently working on. The ENVIS Centres serve as information collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination points on specific subject areas, and for the State/ UT as a whole.
The output of ENVIS is presented with the help of geographic information system (GIS) in an user friendly manner through the India State-level Basic Environmental Information Database (ISBEID). This provides for charting and tabular presentation of data. Information is disseminated to all stakeholders and national and international users. Query-answer, documentation, and referral services to individual, NGOs/ institutions are also provided by ENVIS.
The ENVIS Portal (www.envis.nic.in) has been envisaged as a dynamic Content Management System (CMS) with clearing house mechanism for query redirection by the user from the Portal to the specific ENVIS Centre. The users are able to search the entire ENVIS network websites from the Portal. A subject catalogue for all the Centres are also maintained centrally.
