Parisara: Developing a Collaborative, Free, Public Domain Knowledge Resource on Indian Environment

To address the important challenge of taking good care of India’s environment, substantial, good quality information is crucial. Unfortunately, pertinent information is in very short supply. Much of the nationally collected information lacks quality and is incomplete. Modern science has demonstrated that good information flows from an open, transparent process that welcomes participation of all interested parties. Such a broad based, open, participatory process should be established to develop a sound, comprehensive base of information on India’s environment. All over the world, citizens are a great repository of detailed information on many facets of their local environment. India’s citizens, especially students and teachers, therefore have to play an important role in this process of building up a good information resource on India’s environment. Rapidly advancing information and communication technology (ICT) tools hold much promise in facilitating such a participatory process of knowledge generation. In India, such a programme may involve interested citizens of a locality working with a consortium of both urban and rural high schools, junior and undergraduate colleges. It would take advantage of the fact that it is now mandatory for students in Classes 11–12, as well as for the second year undergraduates in all branches, to undertake a major project on environment. It could also build upon the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 that mandates all panchayats and nagar palikas throughout the country to undertake documentation of local biodiversity resources and associated knowledge in the form of ‘People’s Biodiversity Registers’. In the long run, this process would establish a transparent, publicly accessible information resource on India’s environment with accreditation to concerned students, teachers and other interested citizens for all items of information.