C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre

C.P.R.Environmental Education Centre (CPREEC)

C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre is a Centre of Excellence of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and  Climate Change (MoEF&CC) Government of India, established jointly by the Ministry and the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation.

The Centre has been set up:

• To increase consciousness and knowledge about the various aspects of the environment and also about the major environmental problems facing India today.
• To spread awareness and interest among the masses, with special emphasis on educators, voluntary workers, youth and women, with the purpose of promoting the conservation of nature and its resources. 

The Centre has done pioneering work in the collection of Indian heritage traditions. It has several scientists and sociologists who have specialized in this subject. The Centre also has an extensive library with several books and research papers on the focus area. The Centre has been spreading the message of protection and conservation of biodiversity by emphasizing the conservation traditions of India.

Environmental Information Awareness Capacity Building and Livelihood Programme (EIACP)

CPREEC hosts Programme Centre (PC) on EIACP Resource Partner (RP) on Conservation of Ecological Heritage and Sacred Sites of India funded by Ministry of Environmental, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), Government of India.

Environmental information plays a vital role not only in formulating environmental management policies but also in the decision making process aiming at environmental protection and improvement of environment for sustaining good quality of life for the living beings. Hence, management of environment is key component and thus plays an important role in effecting a balance between the demands and resources available for keeping the environmental quality at a satisfactory level. Realizing such need Ministry set up an Environmental Information System (ENVIS) in 1983 as a plan programme as a comprehensive network in environmental information collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination to varying users, which include decision-makers, researchers, academicians, policy planners and research scientists, etc.

Presently the EIACP network consists of a focal point at the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and and assists the Environment Information (EI) Division in coordinating the activities of all the ENVIS network partners by making ENVIS a web-enabled comprehensive information system. 

EIACP network at present consists of a chain of 67 network partners out of which 39 are on subject-specific and 28 on State/UT related issues. These network partners are called EIACP Centers and are located in notable organizations/institutions/State/UT Government Departments/Universities throughout the country.

Long-Term Objectives

• To build up a repository and dissemination centre in Environmental Science and Engineering.
• To gear up state-of-the-art technologies of information acquisition, processing, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information of an environmental nature.
• To support and promote research, development and innovation in environmental information technology.

Short-Term Objectives

• To provide national environmental information service relevant to present needs and capable of development to meet the future needs of the users, originators, processors and disseminators of information;
• To build up storage, retrieval and dissemination capabilities with the ultimate objective of disseminating information speedily to the users;
• To promote, national and international cooperation and liaison for the exchange of environment-related information;
• To promote, support and assist education and personnel training programmes designed to enhance environmental information processing and utilisation capabilities;
• To promote the exchange of information amongst developing countries.

Responsibilities of EIACP Centres

• Building up a good collection of books, reports and journals in the particular subject area of the environment.
• Establishment of linkages with all information sources in the particular subject area of the environment.
• Responding to user queries.
• Establishment of a data bank on some selected parameters relating to the subject area.
• Coordination with the Focal Point for supplying relevant, adequate and timely information to the users.
• Helping the Focal Point in gradually up an inventory of information material available at the Centre; identification of information gaps in the specified subject areas and action to fill these gaps.
• Bringing out newsletters/publications in their subject area for wide dissemination.

Conservation of Ecological Heritage and Sacred Sites of India

The ENVIS Centre at CPREEC was established in April 2004 by the Environmental Information System (ENVIS) of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India and assigned the responsibility for being the focal point for the thematic area of Ecological Heritage and Sacred Sites of India.

The Environmental Information System (ENVIS) came into existence as a plan programme in 1983. ENVIS has been subsumed within the revamped scheme of Environment Education, Awareness, Research and Skill Development. ENVIS is renamed as EIACP (Environmental Information, Awareness, Capacity Building and Livelihood Programme).

• Sacred Animals
• Sacred Grove
• Sacred Mountain
• Sacred Tanks
• Sacred Waterbodies
• Sacred Plants
• Sacred Gardens
• Sacred Sites

Core Activities of the EIACP Centre at CPREEC

• To collect information on the various aspects of India's ecological traditions.
• To collate all the relevant information on ecological traditions in the form of books, booklets, research papers and article abstracts etc.
• To develop a database on "Ecological Tradition" using selected parameters.
• To provide easy access of all relevant information and data vide http://www.cpreecenvis.nic.in which is updated regularly.
• To respond to user queries received vide email, post or telephone.
• To raise awareness among the masses about our ecological traditions.
• To develop a network with all National and International Sources on the subject area.

Modus Operandi

• Field surveys and research on the various aspects of ecological heritage have been conducted in the city of Chennai and in the rest of the state of Tamilnadu. This is to be extended to the southern states and later to the entire country.
• The Centre disseminates the collected information by organising seminars, workshops & conferences periodically and also with the help of newsletters/publications. This helps in a better understanding and appreciation of India's ancient ecological traditions by the masses.

Source: C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre