ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

The Department of Environmental Studies (DES), Visva-Bharati was established in the year 1999 as the Centre for Environmental Studies. In 2012 the Centre became a Department. The Department provides new dimensions in the various fields of environment with an interdisciplinary approach. It also highlights the distinguishing features of culture, tradition, and ethos of Rabindranath Tagore regarding thorough global perspective and trends. The Department started its academic curriculum from the session 2000-2001, with the teaching of a compulsory course in Environmental Studies for all Undergraduate students of the university. The Department introduced M.Sc. and Ph.D. courses in Environmental Science from 2003. DST-FIST was awarded to DES in 2014-15. The faculty members of the Department are engaged in various collaborative research activities on different aspects of the environment, viz., air pollution and environmental health, water pollution, bioenergy, biofertilizer and social development. Few international collaborations are, 1) SPARC-MHRD of DES with University of Saskatchewan, Canada; 2) DST-BURD project (DES, IIT Mumbai, IIT Madras) with UK (University of Exeter, University of Sheffield, University of Nottingham); 3) BBSRC, UK with (DES, ICT Mumbai, University of Leeds, UK; University of Kampala, Uganda). Nationally, DES collaborated with NBIRT, Kolkata in DST–Mission Innovation project.