The Environmental Information System abbreviated as ENVIS was implemented by the Ministry by end of 6th Five Year Plan as a Plan Scheme for environmental information collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination to policy planners, decision makers, scientists and environmentalists, researchers, academicians and other stakeholders.

ENVIS is a decentralized computerized network database system consisting of the focal point located in the Ministry and a chain of network partners, known as ENVIS centers located in the potential organizations/institutions throughout the country.
 

In order to develop ENVIS network as a comprehensive distributed environmental information network system, the ambit of ENVIS was extended to cover all the States/Union Territory’s of the country. Necessary guidelines and policies were provided to revise the earlier EFC of the scheme and the new concept for covering the State Government departments were completed through a revised SFC.
 

Presently, the ENVIS network consist of 78 ENVIS centers apart from the focal point, of which, 30 ENVIS centers are on State Government Departments dealing with the Status of Environment and related issues of the concerned State Government and the remaining 48 have been set up on various environmental disciplines covering from air pollution, water pollution, noise pollution, biodiversity, solid waste management, ecology and ecosystems, environmental education, NGOs, media and even environmental parliament, coastal ecosystem, clean technology, etc.