Part II
Session I :The review of the work done by
the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in the area on
environment statistics.
The session was chaired by Shri K.V. Irniraya, Secretary, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. Shri Harish Chandra, Director, Environment Statistics Unit in CSO worked as rapportuer. The work done by CSO was reviewed by the workshop.
The
workshop was informed that the Ministry has brought out the issue before that
National Advisory Board on Statistics.
The board has appreciated the efforts of CSO and suggested to include
more data on mining sector which has been done. Further was also mentioned that the representative of UN
Environment Programme, Bangkok reviewed and approved the format and contents of
the compendium but also brought to the note of the workshop that National
Statistics Commission is seized of the issue of data gaps /data needs in the
field of environment. After detailed
discussion following suggestions were given
(a)
Some
additional data from the Network of ENVIS may be included in the compendium
(b)
The
data on area of wetlands, biosphere reserves, Joint Forest Management
committees set up by various state Governments and Eco Villages and cities and
medicinal plants and data about 15 major thrust areas of the Ministry of
Environment and Forests may be included in the compendium
(c)
It
was also suggested that the representations of various data source agencies to
review the contents of the compendium
(d)
CSO
will request all the data user agencies to send their comments or suggestions
on compendium between months of April to September every year with a view to
examine relevance of data incorporated.
(e)
Paper
presented in the workshops will so far contain wealth of information. Pagewise analysis may be carried out and
actionable points short-listed for implementation in a phased manner. This issue may also be looked in to by the
committee recommended of (c) above.
(f)
It
was also suggested that the thickness of the paper used in publication may be
reduced in such a way that publication may not look bulky. It was agreed that data from the project on
impact of sea level rise may be examined for inclusion in the compendium.
(g)
Soft
copy of the compendium in CDS may prepare in addition to printing hand copies.
(h)
State
Government also bring out state Compendium on Environment Statistics on the
lines of CSO Compendium.
Dr. R.N. Pandey made presentation of his paper on “Some methodological issues in developing environment statistics”. He mentioned that while selecting the sites for observation on air and water pollution, the scientific procedure need to be followed. It was mentioned that Ministry of Environment and Forests is already following such procedure while selecting the sites for collection of data. These sites had been divided into three zones namely residential, industrial and sensitive. Shri Harjit Singh mentioned that the data on different aspects are being collected as per laid down procedure and as such data generated by scientists is quite reliable.
Professor
R.V. Rama Rao of the Center for Strategies for Sustainable Development (CSSD)
of FASETS India made an audio-visual presentation on the project on
‘Preparation of District Environmental Statistics Handbook-through utilization
of a dedicated software package. The
presentation demonstrated the various facets of the software of which the
Geographical Information System(GIS) is an integral component. It enables the use of the IDRSI software for
the establishment of an ‘integrated geo-coded spatial data base’ which can also
be web based. It also facilitates
spatial representation through maps and charts at various levels for various
attributes towards status reports and decision support system. He demonstrated how user-friendly the
software was to the structure. He also
mentioned about the digitalization of various maps. It was agreed by all that such software is very useful for
generation of reports which can be consolidated at the District, State and
National levels. It was suggested that
this software may be given to some select states/Institutions for their use in
preparation of District Statistical hand book with a separate chapter on
environment statistics. This will also
facilitate evaluation of efficiency of this software.
Session 2 :
Data need for assessment of environmental problems in the forestry
wildlife sector
Second Technical Session of the workshop was chaired by Shri Harjit Singh, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Environment and Forests. While Dr. R.N. Pandey, Director, Ministry of Industry and Commerce served as a Rapportuer. In this Session Dr. L.K. Banerjee presented a paper entitled on ‘Statistical Assessment and Environmental Problems of Mangrove Forest in India”.
In
his presentation, Dr. Banerjee lucidly explained the location of Mangrove
Forests in different parts of the country, area covered under such Forests,
problems faced in conserving these Forests etc. He also suggested some of the measures need to be taken to
preserve such Forests, as they are very useful in controlling the damage due to
floods etc.
Reacting to the remarks of Dr. Banerjee that remote sensing data about the area under Mangrove Forest is not reliable, Dr. Pandey expressed the apprehension that same may be the case with BSI data. It was explained by Professor Subramaniam that remote sensing data have lot of limitations. Dr. Harjit Singh informed that an exercise had been undertaken to reconcile the figures. It was felt that in case of large scale variation in data from two sources, reconciliation exercises should be undertaken because the whole planning for preservation and conservation are based on such data.
It
was suggested to include the impact of employment and equality on the
conservation of Mangrove Forests in the country. While Professor Rama Rao wanted to know whether a Vegetative
Index can be developed by using the rempote sensing data in India. After detailed deliberations, it was decided
that there was a need for reconciliation of data based on two sources on a
regular basis. Vegetative index can’t
be constructed for all types of species using IRS data. Participants use informed of divergence in
two sets of data – IRS and traditional.
Session
III : Data needs to assess the environmental impacts due to Agriculture
Technical session was chaired by Dr. A.K. Srivastava, IASRI & Rapportuered by Smt. Mamta Saxena, Deputy Director, Central Statistical Organisation, New Delhi.
The session started with the presentation of paper authored by Smt. Shailja Sharma and presented by Smt. Mamta Saxena. The paper discussed major impacts of agricultural advances in two broad areas i.e. Lands & Soil Degradation and Underground Water Depletion & Pollution. Some of the major environmental issues arising in this sector i.e. soil erosion, water logging, steady build up of salts, over exploitation of ground water and its causes, impacts of ground water development and depletion, excess use of fertilizers hazards etc. were discussed. It was suggested in the paper that all the related ministries and Departments like Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Environment and Forest, Ministry of Water Resources, Central Water Commission, Central Pollution Control Board etc. sciences, who can collect, compile and scrutinize and analyse data to bring it to usable form. The major indicators for collection of data are the same as recommended by UNEP.
The second paper entitled ‘Data Need for Impact Assessment of Environmental Aspects of Development Projects with particular reference to Water Resources Development projects’ was presented jointly by Sri.K.A.D. Sinha, Advisor ISO, Central Water Commission (CWC) and Sri V.K. Malhotra, Director, CWC The paper discussed the importance and need for Water Resources Developmental projects and environmental impacts of such projects. The paper also discussed the need for a concerted and coordinated approach for development of necessary data base and filling up existing data gaps; creation of an effective and need oriented machinery for taking evaluation and impact oriented assessment studies by external agencies not connected with or involved in formulation/implementation of project for providing an unbiased assessment.
The third paper presented on the agenda item by Dr. P.D. Sharma, Assistant Director General, ICAR, presentation started with India’s Food Challenge Scenario and listed environmental problems in the context of agriculture. Dr. Sharma discussed in detail the land degradation appraisal and mapping for states and country as a whole on 1:250,000 scale; environment problems related to water resource exploitation, excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides, urban solid and sewage waste etc. and finally discussed the data needs in this area to assess the impacts.
Various
issues brought out in different papers were deliberated in depth. The Chairman, Dr. Srivastava summed up by
adding that earlier environment was an integral part of agriculture. But today on account of various
anthropogenic activities the problems have multiplied and have presented
themselves in their magnified form. To
study the problems, data is to be collected and included in the compendium for
which an exercise has already been undertaken by CSO. It can be further reviewed by a committee in CSO to see what is
available and what more can be included into the compendium, so as to make it
more rich in the data on environmental impacts due to agriculture. Based on the papers presentation and
discussions, following recommendations are suggested.
1. Environmental aspects have been an important and integral part of all agricultural activities. Information needs in agriculture with environmental perspective are primarily based on identification of agri-environmental indicators. In formation on important indicators should form a component in the compendium. For this purpose reliable information sources from concerned organisations should form a basis.
2. There is a growing awareness regarding the adverse effect of use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides on the quality of agricultural produce. There is a need of putting the available information in documented form. Efforts are needed from the concerned organisation to collect and publish it so that this authorized information may find a place in compendium of Environmental Statistics.
3. Efforts may also be made to study the adverse effect of qualitative deterioration of agricultural produce on human health.
4. Monitoring of the stipulated conditions given during the clearance of the environment/forestry impact assessment projects including the impact studies on development projects on ground water should be stringent to get the stipulated conditions fulfilled for protection and conservation of environment.
5. All the ministries/organisations implementing projects which have impact on environment should be well equipped with statistical personnel trained in environmental sciences to enable them to carry out impact studies.
The session on Pollution load in the large, medium and small industries held on 9 February,2001 in the forenoon was chaired by Prof. R. V. Ramarao and Shri S.S. Kushwaha was rapportuer. The following two papers were presented and discussed in this session
1. Estimation of pollution load in Greater Kochi Region by Dr. M.Z.Hassan, Shri S.K. Goel and Shri C.C. Chelapati Rao; NEERI, Nagpur.
2. Pollution load in small, medium and large scale factories by Sr. Nilachal Ray and Shri B. Chowdhary., CSO ( I.S.Wing), Calcutta.
In the first paper Dr. Hassan mentioned about the study on carrying capacity being conducted by them in greater Kochi region of Kerala. He explained the components of the environment, pollution areas and various factors responsible for the pollution alongwith their measurement units. He suggested that necessary action should be taken for pollution control measures in case of the small scale industries as these are the major polluting sources. It was found that the major cause of nitrate in the food product is due to excessive use of fertilizers. Therefore, there is a need to train the farmers to use the proper quantity of the fertillisers.
In the second paper, Shri N. Ray discussed the pollution load in the industries based on the data collected through ASI. He found that in the industries with lower investment capital the pollution load is high, where as in industries with higher investment capital the pollution load is low. He also indicated a relationship between pollution load and the cost of pollution abatement by the industry.
After detailed discussions, the following recommendations were made :
1. More data on pollution load by classification of industries is required to be generated . The data on pollution being collected once by CSO through Annual Survey of Industries should be continued on a regular basis and help of the Ministry of Environment and Forests . It would be helpful if suitable survey for pollution by small scale industries is also launched.
2. The methodology suggested in the paper by Shri Hassan etc.may be taken as one of the methods for measuring the pollution load. There is scope to further elaborate the methodology (for more attributes may be added in accordance with the guidance of the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The Indian Metrological Department (IMD) may be requested to supply the data on the ventilation coefficient and height of mixing of wind.
3. There should be linkages between organizations dealing with coastal management and Central Water Commission and All India Soil and Land Use Survey as water shed management plans need to have an over all integrated assessment of carrying capacities.
4. There is a need to create a national will and commitment for environment cleanliness at all levels. In implementation of various environmental plans special thrust is given for the awareness campaign programme launched by MOEF.
Session V:
Data need for Solid Wastes Management including hospital wastes and Data need
for Natural Disaster management
The sessions on Data need for Solid Wastes Management
including Hospital Wastes and Data need for Natural Disaster management were
combined into a joint session and chaired by Prof. V. Subramanian, JNU and Shri
Nilachal Ray functioned as the rapportuer
The following four papers were discussed in the session:
(1) Data need for Solid Waste Management including hospital wastes by Smt. Mamta Saxena; and
(2)
Natural
Hazard and its Management-by Madhusudan Bhanja & Dr. Dilip Ray; and
(3) Data need for Natural Disaster Management-by Harish Chandra,
(4) Generation of Environmental Data in Centre for Earth Science Studies , Trivandrum by Shri M. Babu and Shri Shrikumar Chattopadhyaya
In her paper, Smt.
Saxena discussed about the problems in disposal of wastes and expressed the
view that the problem was increasing due to considerable increase in population
as well as urbanization . Due to traditional methods of disposal of
waste like dumping of wastes on roads etc., a number of epidemics like plague,
cholera etc. are occurring. She
described about the three types of wastes namely Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW),
Hospital Wastes (HW) and Industrial Solid Wastes (ISW). She discussed about characteristics of
Municipal wastes, management of MSW, recycling etc. In her presentation she clearly brought out that very little
organized data was available. There was
an urgent need for uniform data
collection methodology . She also described the different indicators for data collection.
Dr. Dillip Ray, of DES, Orissa described various aspects of super cyclone of Orissa. He narrated various problems faced by authorities in the absence of proper information As such proper data should be collected to forewarn natural disasters like super cyclones and organize relief measures to mitigate the after effects. These data should be included in the compendium of Environment Statistics.
Harish Chandra, Director CSO described about the natural disasters mainly cyclone, earthquake, fire etc. data are required for disaster prevention, providing relief and rehabilitation for victims. He stressed for preparation of disaster action plan for sub-state level particularly for disaster-prone districts.
Recommendations
1. There is an urgent need for establishing a system for collection of Solid Waste Data on all India basis especially from towns and cities. The computer programmes developed for disposal of solid wastes, especially, bio-medical wastes, available with Prof. Rama Rao may be used by CSO.
2. As per the recent Court judgements bio-medical disposals wastes are to be disposed of at the site itself .The need to generate data on different types of wastes for rural areas was also felt.
3. The requirement of well equipped
information system was felt for mitigating
suffering of the people affected by the natural disasters. The provision of
availability of relief material including the equipments required for assisting
the people trapped inside debris or under water may be available with concerned
district and local authorities.
4. Requirement of preparation of
disaster action plan was emphasized. State Governments may also formulate
disaster action plans similar to one drafted by the Govt. of Maharashtra.
5. The workshop recommended that various research institutions working in the area of environment may have closer interaction with official data producers. The may also prepare a uniform environmental data base need for development of environmental information system (EIS) at the lowest level of administration was also felt.
6.
While generating
data type, its nature ,quality and utility should be taken care of . Further due consideration
should also be given to reproduction and updation of data.