WORKSHOP ON
PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF ENVIS NODES
held in Bangalore at Hotel Atria, from 13th to 16th June 2003
Sponsored by
The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India
( A World Bank assisted Environment Management )
Capacity Building Technical Assistance Project (EMCBTAP))
ENVIS Secretariat sponsored the third workshop on “Performance Evaluation
of ENVIS Nodes” held in Bangalore at Hotel Atria, from 13th to 16th June 2003. The
workshop was organised by C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre, Chennai. The workshop
had seven sessions and a field visit component to five ENVIS Nodes situated in Bangalore
was organized. 33 Nodes out of 36 invited had participated in the workshop. An epitomized
report of the workshop is given below:
The workshop was started with a welcome address by Dr Nanditha Krishna,
Director, C.P.R. Environment Education Centre, Chennai. Shri Harjit, Singh Senior Advisor,
Ministry of Environment and Forests inaugurated the workshop. In his address the Senior
Advisor emphasized that the ENVIS portal should aim to provide access to relevant subject
based information stored in electronic formats by the Nodes over the Internet and should
be easily searchable via database. He also accentuated the need for ENVIS Project to
rethink how research and policy planning communities should disseminate information as
new technologies offer collaborating opportunities and tools to help disseminate
information and build joint Internet portals and information services.
On this occasion a book published by Botanical Survey of India, was
released by the Senior Advisor.
The keynote address was delivered by Dr Indrani Chandrasekharan, Director,
Ministry of Environment and Forests. In her address she highlighted the importance of
establishing 85 ENVIS Nodes, as a value of ‘knowledge’, and reiterated the importance
of information networking, as its need was recognised in the environmental information
arena. Her address confirmed, the significance of networking among the stakeholders,
and its importance for institutes to facilitate and encourage resource sharing, for
researchers to reduce professional isolation and provide insights into the other
disciplines, and for the public being supplied with higher quality and appropriate research
information. She also, emphasized the need for ENVIS Nodes to foster and develop a culture
of networking and communication within the ENVIS family, especially as information technology
has transformed the networking operations and its impacts will continue to do so. She
concluded that this workshop aims to give an insight how ENVIS Nodes have successfully
disseminate their information through the website’s to national and international public
and would support the capacity of the ENVIS project to enhance its network of information
repository.
The Session was chaired by Shri Harjit Singh Senior Advisor,
Ministry of Environment and Forests and co-chaired by Dr Indirani Chandraskharan, Director
Ministry of Environment and Forests, and Dr Nanditha Krishna, Director C.P.R. Environment
Education Centre, Chennai.
In this session the following five ENVIS Nodes made their presentation on the given
subject areas, Chemical Waste and Toxicology.
Industrial Toxicological Research
Institute, (ITRC), Lucknow
National Environmental Engineering
Research Institute(NEERI), Nagpur
School of Environment Science,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Centre for Environment Studies
(CES), Anna University, Chennai
National Institute of Occupational
health (NIOH), Ahmedabad
The five Nodes made their presentation on their
respective allocated subject areas i.e Toxic Chemicals, Hazardous waste, Biogeochemistry,
Biodegradation of Wastes and Environmental Impact Assessment, Control of pollution (Air,
Water, Noise) and Occupational health. The representatives from the Nodes placed before
the chairperson, the details of activities that were accomplished during the project period.
The ENVIS centres spoke on the structure, strategy and management of the website that
was developed under the EMCBTA project. The presentations also gave an update on the database
stored, collected and information disseminated by the Centres as per the queries recorded
by individual centres.
The Session was chaired by Dr Indrani Chandrasekharan,
Director (EI), Ministry of Environment and Forests, and co chaired by Dr. Nanditha Krishna,
Director C.P.R. Environment Education Centre, Chennai.
In this session the following six ENVIS Nodes made their presentation on the
subject area, Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity.
Centre for Advanced Studies in
Marine Biology (CASMB) Annamalai University, Parangipettai
Zoological Survey of India (ZSI),
Kolkata.
Botanical Survey of India, (BSI),
Kolkata.
Forest Research Institute (FRI),
Dehradun,
Wildlife Institute of India (WII)
, Dehradun.
Department of Environmental
Science, University of Kalyani, Kalyani.
All the six Nodes made presentations on subject areas i.e. Mangroves,
Estuaries, Lagoons and Coral Reefs, Faunal Bio-diversity, Floral Bio-diversity, Forestry
Wildlife & Protected Area Management and Environmental Biotechnology. The Nodes presented
details of their functions and organisation within the parent institution/organisation,
in-built infrastructure facilities and staff working in the project. The Nodes dispensed
to the house about the website’s achievements. The presentations by individuals explained
the architecture, technology, style and content of the database and information that has
been uploaded on their respective websites. The presentations were concluded with a brief
description on the present status of the website and management relating to the IT Staff
and financial resources that ENVIS Nodes had at their disposal to accomplish their targets
for preparation of the ENVIS dedicated website.
Dr Indirani Chandraskharan, Director (EI) Ministry
of Environment and Forests, chaired the Session.
In this Session the following nine ENVIS Centres/Nodes made their presentation
on the subject area – Ecology & Ecosystem
Centre for Ecological Science,
Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore,
Indian School of Mines (ISM)
Dhanbad
G.B Pant Institute of Himalayan
Environment and Development (GBPIHED) Almora,
School of Planning and
Architecture, (SPA), New Delhi
Bombay Natural History Society,
(BNHS), Mumbai
Department of Geology, University
of Kerala (DG,UK) Thiruvananthapuram
National Ship Design and Research
Centre (NSDRC), Visakhapatnam.
Institute for Ocean Management
(IOM), Anna University, Chennai
C.P.R. Environmental Education
Centre (CPREEC), Chennai
In this Session nine ENVIS Nodes made a presentation on subject areas dealing
with a range of environmental information on Western Ghats and Biological Diversity, Environmental
Problems of Mining, Himalayan Ecology, Human Settlement, Avian Ecology including Inland
Wetlands Marine Ecosystem, Marine Offshore Ecosystem, Coastal Regulation Zone Management,
Eastern Ghats, Ecology Conservation of Ecological Heritage and sacred sites in India. The
presentation encompassed the individual Node’s ENVIS dedicated website’s achievements, status
and management. Explanation on the logic of pages being linked to the database as per their
subject areas was given. Issues on appropriate web technology used primarily to access the site
by national and international browsers with different software’s and hardware capacities were
accussed. The style and layout of text, data in form of statistics and maps information in
context of the subject area and the degree to which the ENVIS Node’s website supports user
interaction was presented.
The Session was chaired by Dr Indrani Chandrasekharan,
Director Ministry of Environment and Forests, and Dr Nanditha Krishna, Director C.P.R.
Environment Education Centre, Chennai.
In this session the following four ENVIS Nodes made their presentation on the
subject area – Media, Environment Education and Sustainable Development.
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF),
India, New Delhi
Centre for Environmental Education
(CEE), Ahmedabad
Centre for Media Studies (CMS),
New Delhi
Madras School of Economics (MSE),
Chennai
In this Session four ENVIS Nodes made their presentation on subject
areas dealing with environmental information on Non-Government Organizations, Media and Parliament
matter related to Environment, Environmental Education and Communication & Electronic Media.
The presentation by the Nodes was based on the components of the website’s developed i.e.
navigation of the site, style of layout and contents of database and information in context
to the specific subject area. Each of the Nodes presented their strategy and management of
the website search engines, links and ENVIS dedicated e-newsletters that have been incorporated
on the site.
The Session was chaired by Dr Indrani Chandrasekharan, Director
Ministry of Environment and Forests, and Dr Nanditha Krishna, Director C.P.R. Environment Education
Centre, Chennai
In this session the following four ENVIS Centres/Nodes made their presentation on the
subject area State of Environment Report and related issues.
Department of Environment, Chennai
Gujarat Ecology Commission,
Vadodara
Environmental Protection Training
and Research Institute (EPTRI) Hyderabad
Centre for Environment Studies,
Bhubaneswar
The State Government Nodes presentations focused on the current and emerging
issues of the State of Environment Reports and explained that the approach needed a political
relevance and timeliness. The Nodes highlighted the importance of the report increase public awareness
on emerging and priority issues. The presentation highlighted that SoE Reports would mainly concentrated
on the dynamics of ecosystem and its interrelationships reflecting both the cause and effects.
The relevance to provide a systematic and comprehensive coverage for all environmental sectors was
also discussed at length. Such a framework also facilitates the development and evaluation of policy
responses to environmental problems.
The Session was chaired by Shri Harjit Singh Senior Advisor,
Ministry of Environment and Forests and co-chaired by Dr Indrani Chandrasekharan, Director
Ministry of Environment and Forests, and Dr Nanditha Krishna, Director C.P.R. Environment Education
Centre, Chennai.
In this Session the following five ENVIS Centres/Nodes made their presentation on
the subject area Environment and Energy Management.
Punjab State Council for Science
and Technology (PSCST), Chandigarh
Centre for Symbiosis of
Technology, Environment and Management (STEM), New Delhi
State Council of Science and
Technology for Sikkim (SCSTS), Gangtok
Development Alternatives (DA), New
Delhi
Indian Environmental Society
(IES), New Delhi
In this Session nine ENVIS Centres/Nodes made presentations on subject
areas dealing with Water Resource Management, Environmentally Sound and Appropriate Technologies, Panchayati
Raj & Environment, Women and Environment.
The presentations highlighted the systems for accessing, storing, transferring
and disseminating information. The mechanism of channeling of information and database for dissemination
is being done by the acceptance of the use of in-house generated information and communication tools.
Issues on the quality of the system and appropriate web technologies were looked at primarily to emphasize
how accessible the site is to the browsers with different software and hardware capacities. Presentation
on the appearance of the layout and display of text and images on the website and the degree to which
the website supports user interaction was made. The degree to which the site has met stated objectives
is concerning its query-response and management of financial resources that the ENVIS Nodes was highlighted.
The house was opened for discussion for the representatives to
reciprocate their opinion. This session was chaired by Shri Harjit Singh Senior Advisor, Ministry of
Environment and Forests and co-chaired by Dr Indrani Chandrasekharan, Director Ministry of Environment
and Forests, and Dr Nanditha Krishna, Director C.P.R. Environment Education Centre, Chennai.
The highlights of the discussion have been detailed in Annexure I.
In his Valedictory address, Shri Harjit Singh, Senior Advisor Ministry of
Environment and Forest, accented about the ENVIS activities be directed towards the needs
and concerns of environmental information system in India. He urged ENVIS Nodes to invest
their communication capacities to build appropriate environment related database and be readily
available for dissemination. He also mentioned that the information available on the Nodes website’s
should be as per standards and updated regularly and the ENVIS Nodes should create an alliance
among expertise and identify a pool of resource persons in their respective subject areas for
the environmental information network to have a world wide access.
A vote of thank was addressed by Dr. Mrs. Nanditha Krishna, Director of
C.P.R. Environment Education Centre, Chennai.
