 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Nodal Officer : Shri. Qamar Qureshi
Background|The Beginning|Present
Status|Computer Applications|
The emphasis on the need and utility of applying modern computer technology in strengthening wildlife conservation was given early on during the formative years of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). In fact, one of the six mission statements of WII is to “Create a database leading to a National Wildlife Information System”. It was realized that attempts to strengthen field conservation should be made by adopting a holistic management approach, of which the computer applications should form an integral part.
The
development of computer facility at WII made a modest beginning with the
procurement of two ‘Apple’ computers and recruitment of one computer
personnel in 1986. Initial
technical expertise in computerization was provided by the FAO under project
“Assistance to the Wildlife Institute of India 1988-90”.
Efforts were initiated to design and develop the computer facilities for
the Institute’s upcoming new campus at Chandrabani.
Careful selection of appropriate hardware, software including the local
area networking software for the new campus was made through extensive
consultations and visits to various organizations and computer vendors.
The institute initiated the development of a Geographic Information
System (GIS) capability, largely through collaborative linkages with the United
States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). Under this linkage hardware, software
and technical expertise was provided by the USFWS along with training fellowship
to institute faculty and staff. In
1987, a national wildlife database on species, habitats and protected areas was
established under FAO project IND/82/003. This
was essentially a single user database and required standardization of methods
of data collection, collation and analyses. There has been a substantial growth in the computer facilities at WII over the years (Fig. 1). The number of computer terminals have grown from 4 in 1986 to 160 in 2003. Number of users have grown from 15 in 1986 to 230 in 2003. Similarly, from 1 computer personnel in 1986 the Institute now has 11. The details of computer hardware and software in use is given in Annexure I and II respectively. Fig.1
Growth of Computer Facility in WII. There
is a wide array of areas in which computer applications are being made at WII
(Fig. 2). These range from GIS to
electronic publishing; database development to inventory management; library
automation to local area networking; training to internet use.
Computer ethos has seeped in the working of faculty, staff, researchers
and students. The trend in growth of services provided by the Computer/GIS
Centre is given in Fig.3. The details of computer applications at WII are given
below:
The institute has state-of-the-art GIS and Remote Sensing facilities. Its application is being made in research and consultancy projects and also in EIA studies. Hands-on training is provided through specially organized courses. The Institute received substantial GIS software donation from the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI), USA. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) exists with the ESRI, India to take up collaborative projects involving GIS – Remote Sensing Applications. Training in computer applications in wildlife conservation is an integral part of the course curriculum of the 9 months Postgraduate Diploma Course in Wildlife Management. Short duration training courses are organized for faculty, staff, researchers and students for which course curriculum and reading material is specially designed. Opportunities for enhancement of professional skills of computer personnel are provided by sponsoring them for overseas training and visits and also by nominating them for in-country training courses. The institute has established Internet connectivity through a leased line link with VSNL at 512 Kbps. It has its own Internet and Mail Servers. The purpose of this facility is to facilitate academic, research and training activities in the field of wildlife conservation. Individual e-mail addresses have been allocated to faculty/staff/researchers/students /officer trainees. All computers of institute's LAN have been configured to provide internet services viz. sending/receiving e-mails, internet browsing, FTP for uploading/downloading of information etc. The URL of WII website is http://www.wii.gov.in.
The
Institute has recently entered into electronic publishing.
The Environment Information System (ENVIS) Centre at WII on “Wildlife
& Protected Areas”, publishes bi-annual
bulletin which is also hosted on the web-site along with the
Institute’s Newsletter. The
electronic editions ensure much wider dissemination of these documents. Extensive
use of Desk Top Printing (DTP) facilities (computer hardware, software, scanner
and colour printer) is made in the production of course material, research
reports, monographs, newsletters, annual report and other documents. The
Institute’s library has state-of-the-art computer facilities.
All library operations are automated and a variety of value added
services are provided to the users. The
library has its own server which is also connected to the main server.
The
Institute maintains a number of databases viz.
(i) National Wildlife Database (NWD) on species, habitats and protected areas
(ii) Zoo database; (iii)
Officer trainee database; (iv) Research
project database and (v) Bibliographic database.
The NWD has recently been
ported from FoxPro environment to
state-of-the-art RDBMS package – ORACLE.
All computer personnel have also been trained in ORACLE use. The databases can be accessed by various users through the
Institute’s Local Area Network. In
order to ensure optimal use of hardware and software resources, the Institute
has set up an extensive Local Area Network (LAN) based on Novell Netware 4.11. There are 160 nodes. The
day to day management is looked after by the LAN Manager who is supported by two
hardware engineers provided by the AMC firm. The
data analyses for various research and consultancy projects is carried out using
an array of software. The computer staff provides technical assistance and support
in statistical analyses.
Many
a times need arises for taking up customized software development for carrying
out statistical analyses of vegetation and animal data including census.
Similarly, Simple Macro Language (SML) and Arc Macro Language (AML)
programmes have to be written for implementing software routines in GIS domain.
The computer staff provides support in the development of customized
software. The
Institute has taken up the computerization of the administrative functions and
financial transactions including the inventorization of stores.
The computerization process has optimized these operations. Every year the Institute makes computer hardware/software purchase for which rigorous benchmarking procedures are followed. Benchmarking standards and protocols have been developed in-house, which are also used by other sister organizations based in Dehradun. The adoption of these procedures have resulted in getting better specifications as well as cost savings.
In order to develop the state-of-the-art computer facilities the Institute has made considerable financial investment (Fig. 4). From a meagre investment of Rs 7.93 lakhs in 1986-89 it has grown to Rs 76.70 lakhs in 1995-98. Besides this, a sum of over US$ 100,000 has been spent by international collaborative projects. A considerable investment is required to maintain and upgrade the facilities e.g. the annual maintenance contract and consumables supply require Rs. 14.00 lakhs every year; internet facility up-link charges are Rs. 6.00 lakhs per year; up-gradation of hardware/software require Rs. 10.00 lakhs annually. Besides this, a substantial amount is spent
on salaries of computer personnel on contract, organization of training courses,
HRD - all of which is currently met from various national and international
projects at the Institute. In order
to provide a bigger space to meet the growing needs and also better working
environment, it is proposed to shift the computer/GIS centre to new academic
block,
which will be commissioned in the year 2000.
Planning, design and development of the new computer/GIS centre including
the training centre will require considerable investment especially as fibre
optics cables will be laid to cater to the need of fast and heavy data flow. The
organization structure for managing the computer facilities at WII is depicted
in Fig. 5. Under the Chairmanship
of the Additional Director the 15 member computer committee functions.
The committee meets every month and deliberates upon various matters
connected with the policy and activities of the Computer/GIS centre. The Faculty
Incharge Computer/GIS centre is responsible for the management of the
Computer/GIS centre for which technical assistance is provided by the System
Manager. In all 6 permanent and 9
contract staff work in the Computer/GIS centre. Human
Resource Development (HRD) in the field of computer applications has been
identified in the WII ‘Institution Building Plan’ as one of the core
delivery and enabling system to carry out the core/line activities.
The need for providing advanced training to the computer personnel on a
continuing basis cannot be over-emphasized.
A number of requests also come from various technical institutions and
universities to provide placement to graduate students for undertaking
dissertation projects. A list of
such placements is given in Annexure III. It
is visualized that such opportunities should be provided in a planned manner so
that they are mutually beneficial. Similarly,
opportunities for computer personnel to enhance their professional skills have
to be provided. Two computer
personnel have obtained doctorate degrees in the last two years and a few others
are pursuing it. Adequate
opportunities for career advancement and professional skill development should
be provided to computer personnel. The profile of the computer personnel working
in the Institute is given in Annexure IV. The momentum of growth in computer facility development needs to be sustained. Rapid advancements in Information Technology (IT) invariably make investments obsolete. This can be addressed by adopting systematic and pro-active planning and phasing of investments. To maintain and develop the state-of-the-art Computer/GIS/IT facilities at WII it is reckoned that an investment of atleast Rs. 50.00 lakhs per annum would be required from year 2000 onwards. The need for developing training courses on “Biodiversity Information Management” is also visualized. The World Conservation Monitoring Centre (WCMC), United Kingdom has recently approached the Institute to develop these courses under a collaborative arrangement. This arrangement should be formalized and made operational in a reasonable time frame as it will go a long way in strengthening field conservation efforts in managing the rich and varied biodiversity of our country. Computers :
All
the above systems are connected to the Printers :
Misc :
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
