Knowledge is Power, focused at this the Government of India, established Environmental Information System (ENVIS) in December 1982, as a plan program. Presently the ENVIS network consists of Focal Point at the Ministry of Environment and Forest and ENVIS Centers setup in different organizations/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.
The basic objective of ENVIS is make environment related information available to the stakeholders through the electronic media. ENVIS has built up a reasonably good information base in the form of publications, reports, reprints, bibliographies, abstracts, data bases etc., as well as numerical data i.e. statistics relating to environment. The information base/repository is being continuously strengthened. This involves regular collection, collation and storage of scientific and technical information on environment and related areas.
The establishment of several ENVIS Centers, located in different organizations / institutions in the country in selected areas of environment, as part of ENVIS Network has considerably assisted in building up and strengthening of this information base.
To strengthen ENVIS in disseminating information pertaining to environment and sustainable development, ENVIS India is in the process of establishing eighty-five ENVIS Center by involving Organizations, institutions, Universities and Government departments working in diverse areas of environment. The Strength of ENVIS program is the diversity of its Center and the decentralized mode of operation to achieve specialized information dissemination to the stakeholders.