METROLOGY AND ENVIRONMENT COLLEGES AND COURSES IN INDIA

Meteorology is a technical branch that employs sophisticated technology. As a group meteorologists are physicists, mathematicians, chemists, engineers, geographers, oceanographers, hydrodynamicists, radiometrists, & statisticians, hydrologists and astrophyicists. The work meteorologists do may be categorized under the following heads Operational, Research and Applied.

The Operational work includes weather forecasting. They interpret information reported from weather satellites, weather radar, remote sensors and observers on air pressure, temperature, humidity and air velocity. This information is processed through computers and charts and weather maps are prepared. They may use th Doppler radar to detect rotational patterns in violent thunderstorms, predict tornadoes, flash floods with details of intensity and speed. Meteorologists specialize in preparing weather briefs for agriculturists, aviators, shipping & marine sectors or for media reports for the general public.

Environmental scientists

Waste treatment of industries, municipalities, refineries, distilleries, mines, fertilizers, food processing and textiles industries are a major concern today for environment scientists. Toxic wastes hazardous to the environment have to be detected and treated by microbes. Environmental scientists work on related projects. Environment Scientists hold an M. Sc. degree.

Solid Waste Management - This is a vast area fo work and employ chemists, engineers, hydrologists. The work is concerned with cutting down the dangers from solid wastes. The popular methods of destroying solid waste for a number of years was burning which in turn was a steady air pollutant .Using garbage for landfills is the current concept being steadily replaced by garbage management in developed countries where the aim is to reduce the garbage output at the source and recycle garbage for better use. In India there is a perceivable change in the approach of industries in managing their industrial waste for which environmental scientists are employed. Hazardous waste can be lethal hence the waste particularly from chemical industries, leather and plastic industry, nuclear reactors and even from small scale industries such as dry cleaning industry etc needs handling by environmental experts. Geologists, radioactive waste experts, industrial waste managers, hydrologists need to be appointed for these tasks.

Air Pollution Management - Acid rain, ozone depletion, green house gases are threats to the environment. Top scientists work in air pollution control. Analytical chemists, toxicologists and air quality  specialities analyze the effects of various harmful gases which are emitted as a result of fuel or garbage combustion. They also study the effects of these on human as well as plant life.

Water quality management - The environmental scientists working in this area are botanists, oceanographers, marine scientists, wildlife scientists, ecologist and people working in water shed management. They are concerned with the preservation, purification and advising on all matters related to the quality of water in rivers, lakes, streams, and all surface and ground waters. This is a huge area of work in our country where almost all sources of water face the threat of contamination. Marine life is critical for survival of sea animals and for human consumption. Marine biologists aim to study the effects of various pollutants of water and prevent and clean up contamination for the preservation of marine life.

Land conservation - Environmentalists are greatly concerned with the proper and optimum use of land and water sources. This area of work overlaps that of forestry and wildlife managers and also incorporates planning for better use of land and water. They work in conservation of parks, outdoor recreation sites, re-greening of urban areas and often have a background of geology, landscape architecture, wildlife management, forestry etc.

In the field of environment professionals drawn from the following disciplines are largely encountered:- Biologists who study the effect of changes in the environment on living things. Bacteriologists, biochemists, botanists, horticulturists who work on safer pesticides and herbicides, microbiologists, mycologists and toxicologists work in the areas concerning the environment. Chemists, ecologists, soil scientists, foresters, aqua culturist, may all work in areas related to management.

Study/Training

Environment related education can be covered through different disciplines as described in the foregoing pages. Graduate/Postgraduate courses in Environmental studies are pursued after a Science stream at school. The following section details some study options for specialists in the field of environment.

Environment education

Centre for Environment Education, Ahmedabad, imparts training in environment education. This institution is affiliated to the Nehru Foundation for Development. The program imparts training to develop educators who can identify environment issues and draw up strategies to manage these at all levels.

The course duration is 9 months and eligibility is post graduation in any discipline. Professionals (teachers, administrators, NGO, activists and media persons) can take ths course. The course includes training in wasteland development, water conservation, forest management, pollution, health and sanitation, eco development, big and small dams, protected areas etc. Mediums used are radio, video, property, graphics etc.

Environment technology COLLEGES

Eco-tourism

The Adventures Wilderness School, 142, 69th Cross, 5th Block, Rajaji Nagar, Bangalore 560010, offers course in Eco-tourism.

Environmental scientists

Environment Scientists are from many disciplines such as a botany, zoology, oceanography, ecology, chemistry, economics, engineering, environment studies etc. Refer to charts in subsequent pages for courses in Environment.