The environment, being a multi-disciplinary area, a multitude of agencies is involved in the collection of environmental data. However, there is no single organization in India which tracks the data available with various data collection agencies and makes it available in form and manner required by the environmental professionals and decision makers. Moreover the environmental data is not available in value added form which can improve the quality of EIA and the decision making process.

With this background, Environmental Information Centre (EIC) was conceived by Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in the year 2002. The pilot phase was supported by the World Bank which ended in the year 2004. The centre had moved successfully from the pilot phase into a self sustaining entity.

The basic purpose of EIC is to efficiently meet the secondary environmental data needs of all stakeholders including MoEF, regulators, financial institutions, NGOs and CBOs, project proponents and consultants, involved with Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and speed up environmental clearance and decision making processes. The data available with EIC can be used by project proponents for planning and site selection of projects. The available data with EIC will serve as a basic tool for the EIA cycle right from scoping, screening, tailoring Environmental Management and Disaster Management Plans. The data can also be used by the regulatory agencies for accelerating the Environmental Clearance (EC) process. MoEF also uses EIC services to provide feedback on the authenticity of secondary environmental data in EIAs.

The environmental data is stored in GIS platform having more than 30 spatial layers and is being disseminated to various stakeholders in a user-friendly format. The data is validated through four level data validation checks. EIC is the repository of value added data on Ecology (forests and protected areas), Geology, soils, air and water quality, socio-economics and demography, land use, DTM , infrastructure etc. EIC has delivered around 100 sets of environmental data to wide range of clients.
Apart providing environmental data, EIC also undertakes specialized environmental projects like environmental profile of a region, catchment area treatment plans etc.