Current Programmes

6. ENVIS Centre on State Environment  Issues

ENVIS (Environmental Information System) Centre established in PSCST is working on ‘Punjab State Environment Issues’. It is a part of decentralized system of Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India with a network of different subject oriented Centers (78 Centers all over India)  involved in collection, collation and dissemination of environment related information to decision makers, policy planners, scientists, engineers, research workers, etc.

ENVIS (Environmental Information System) Node on 'State Environmental Issues' in PSCST was established in Dec. 2002 under the World Bank assisted Project of Environment Management Capacity Building for Environmental Information System (EMCB-ENVIS) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Government of India (GoI) to identify and highlight the Punjab state environmental problems. The Node was converted to ENVIS Centre on Jan, 2005 on ‘Status of Environment and Related Issues’ under the aegis of MoEF, GoI, under the 10th five year plan. The Punjab ENVIS Centre is making its continuous efforts for identifying and collecting information, locating data gaps, establishing linkages with information providers & users and maintaining a databank on environment issues in Punjab. The Centre was also selected as partner under Sustainable Development Network Programme (SDNP) of ENVIS Indo-Canadian Environment Facility (ICEF) Project to work on the themeatic area, ‘Agriculture & Water harvesting’.

ACTIVITIES UNDER ENVIS CENTRE

·     Development and maintenance of  a bilingual website (in English & Punjabi) : The website www.punenvis.nic.in was launched in Feb, 2005 providing information on the major issues of environmental concern in the State of Punjab with special reference to Agriculture , Air, Water, Land, Biodiversity, Demography, Energy, Solid-waste management, Environment education & awareness and Policies & legislations. It also provides information on related Departments, Weblinks, Photogallery, Maps, News items & Events. Further, additional information can be accessed from the other sublinks like Introduction, About PSCST, About ENVIS, etc. This is an interactive site with a dynamic Query-Response system and Searchable Databases on: Shiwalik Biodiversity, Air Pollution, Water Quality in Major Rivers of Punjab, Environment Literature. Punjab Environment Abstracts and Directory of Experts/NGos/GOs working in the field of Environment Education in South Asia. The Centre daily compiles news items  on the related issues

·     Publication of Newsletter, books, booklets, CD, etc. The Centre publishes quarterly Newsletter on the various issues related to the subject area. This Newsletter alongwith with  its & other collaborative publications like Punjab Environment Abstract book (1975-1995), State of Environment Reports ( Punjab & Chandigarh), Biodiversity booklet, Field Guide of Birds of Kishopur Maini wetland, etc are also available on the website.

·     Public outreach and capacity building activities: The Centre undertakes Public outreach and capacity building activities from time to time. A few of them are stated as follows:

o     A Three day Chandigarh Film Festival (outreached 3, 363 people during 9 shows)

o     Syposium on ‘ Agriculture and Environment’ attended by 137 persons

o    Assisting NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) ‘Cloudsat Education Network Programme’ and helping the State Institute for Science Education, Punjab to outreach eight selected schools (from Jalandhar and Mohali district) in Punjab among the other 10 countries ( like USA, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Thailand, Indonesia, etc.) in the world. Under this Programme, NASA is involving school students for ground truthing of data generated by the satellites for study of clouds and global climate under the NASA Earth Science Enterprise.

o    Celebration of environment related important days

The site can be accessed at www.punenvis.nic.in

Email: pun@envis.nic.in
 

Contact Persons: Dr. Neelima Jerath, Ms. Ravleen Singh, Mr. CharanKamal Singh, Mr. Harpreet Singh