The Programme: Background and Objectives For creating environmental awareness at all sectors of the society, the Ministry

of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India, launched National Environment Awareness Campaign (NEAC) in 1986. Twenty-Nine organizations located in different parts of the country have been designated as Regional Resource Agencies (RRA) for assisting the Ministry in conducting this campaign. Besides helping the Ministry in selecting the participating organizations, RRAs are also responsible for physically monitoring and evaluating the activities conducted by various organizations under NEAC in their respective areas. Indian Environmental Society is the Regional Resource Agency for Western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The Theme for this years NEAC Campaign was Solid Waste Management. The theme was selected by the Ministry to create awareness among Community about the interrelated problems the country is facing today associated with water and solutions to overcome these problems. All the activities (action and awareness oriented) carried out under the Campaign were focussed on various environmental issues related to Solid Waste Management. Progress during the Year During the reporting period, the Society received 226 proposals from the organizations of Delhi and 1096 proposals from the organizations of Western Uttar Pradesh. Out of these, the Empowered Committee recommended 79 organizations of Delhi and 404 organizations of Western Uttar Pradesh. These organizations have carried out various action as well as awareness activities based on the theme Solid Waste Management. The amount sanctioned this year for the Delhi region was Rs. 4,61,000/and for Western Uttar Pradesh was Rs. 20,84,000/-. The monitoring team from IES monitored and participated in the activities of the participating organizations in Western Uttar Pradesh and Delhi. The Society has also provided the necessary materials like posters, IES publications, and training manuals on Solid Waste Management etc. for the Campaign. The activities and programmes of the participating organization were successful and it has been observed that all the organizations had followed the theme very sincerely. The Society has organized 2 workshops under this programme, one in Delhi and one in Uttar Pradesh (Lucknow), which were attended by the participating organizations from Delhi and Western Uttar Pradesh. These workshops were organized to make clear the objectives of the NEAC Programme and also to discuss about the activities and programmes to be carried out during the Campaign. ENVIS Centre on Panchayati Raj and Environment The Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India has established an Environmental Information Centre (ENVIS Centre) on Panchayati Raj and Environment at Indian Environmental

Society. The immense need was felt by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Govt. of India to collect and disseminate information on Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Environment and also to promote the participation of PRIs in environmental conservation. The Programme: Background and Objectives The basic concepts of Panchayati Raj are that the villagers should think, decide, and act for their own socio-economic interests. Thus, it is related to village self-governance, where the people in the form of an organization will think, decide, and act for their collective interests. For integrated rural development, decentralization of power and resources to Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) is an essential element. The Panchayats can play effective role through drawing local peoples participation in sustainable harvesting and management of local resources. Agriculture, land improvement, forestry, tree planting, animal husbandry, village and cottage industries, drinking water, poverty alleviation programmes, health, sanitation, family welfare etc. are necessarily the concerns of the village panchayats. It has been realized that if financial and technical assistance is provided to PRIs, they can certainly take positive initiatives in solving local environmental problems. Thus there is an immense need for collection, documentation, and sharing of information to promote environmental consciousness among rural masses for providing information to decision-makers, policy planners, scientists etc. To facilitate this, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Govt of India has established ENVIS Center on Panchayati Raj and Environment at Indian Environmental Society with the following objectives:

To develop comprehensive databases on various panchayat bodies in a phased manner in all the States / Union Territories of the country. To disseminate information on the locale specific issues prevailing in the Panchayats of several districts of the States, for preparation of developmental plans of panchayat. To establish Electronic Linkages with all information sources working in the field of Panchayati Raj. To develop a comprehensive Resource Base in the form of books, reports, journals, databases etc. and to respond to the queries received from several panchayat bodies. To publish Newsletter for dissemination of necessary information and to appraise the panchayat bodies about existence of this Centre on Panchayati Raj and Environment.

ENVIS Centre on Panchayati Raj and Environment has been bestowed with the responsibility of documenting environmental issues to promote environmental consciousness among the rural masses. Major functions of the centre include collection, compilation, and dissemination of information

related to environment and rural development through newsletter and other resource material; institutional capacity building through organization of training programme and awareness camps. Progress during the Year The centre has been continuously collecting information preferably from secondary sources related to rural environmental problems and from various concerned agencies like CAPART, Ministry of Rural Development, NWDB, State departments of Environment, planning Commission, Department of Statistics, and Voluntary Organizations working on rural issues. A network through development of linkages with all the NGOs, Rural Development Authorities, Panchayati Raj Institutions etc. working for the environmental issues in Panchayats is made in order to determine the profile of information, requirements of Panchayati bodies especially on environmental issues. The centre has also established linkages with various ENVIS nodes throughout the country for exchange of information on a periodic basis. The Society has compiled electronically all the relevant data on the Panchayats of the thematic areas. This is available online at www.iespanchayat.net.in. Around 200 new mailing addresses have been added to update our network. The Information Network is now being uploaded on the Website. The Centre has published four Newsletters Panchayat both in English and in Hindi language for wide dissemination of Environment on the following theme: Medicinal Plants Their Usage and Values Energy and Environment Chemical Fertilizers and Environmental Management Panchayat is published quarterly and is the only publication of its kind focussing exclusively on PRIs and Environment. This is distributed widely among diverse target groups (educational institution, govt. departments, NGOs, etc.). The newsletter is also sent to a large number of gram panchayats, villages. These newsletters are also available online at www.iespanchayat.org. The website also provide information about the legislation, structure of PRIs, panchayat profile of each state, environmental programme, success stories and relevant news items. An Electronic Newsletter is also being sent every fortnightly, which comprises of latest happenings in the thematic area and abstracts from all type of media source. It is sent to concerned people through e-mails E-groups and is uploaded on the website. The Society has also published one book on Panchayati Raj and Environment in Hindi. In the Book, the Society has compiled the related information on Panchayati Raj and Environment in the simple language. The Society has also developed a booklet of 100 question answers related to Panchayati Raj and Environment titled Panchayati Raj Evam Paryavaran Prashanottri . The Society has also collected the success stories on Women and Panchayati Raj and compiled them in a booklet entitled Panchayati Raj and Women.

The Centre has received large number of inquires from several user groups about the activities and functioning of the Centre. IES has always tried its level best to give at the earliest and fully satisfying replies to the queries received. It has been observed that over the years the number of queries is increasing. This indicates that more and more interaction is being developed between user group and the Society. The Centre has received large number of queries on different environmental issues like environmental awareness, pollutionn and waste, environment and development etc.