Biodiversity Atlas – India provides a powerful natural history web-platform for taxon-specific, species-based biodiversity bioinformatics. Most data are contributed by amateur citizen scientists, photographers and professional scientists, and peer-reviewed and curated by advanced amateur naturalists and professional biologists.
Image credits:
NatureMates and Indian Foundation for Butterflies
Citizen science, biodiversity informatics, outreach and conservation in the Indian Region
Year of Initiation:
2017
Project Coordinator:
Prof. Krushnamegh Kunte
E-mail Address:
Role in the project:
Chief Editor
Institutional Affiliation:
Indian Foundation for Butterflies, and National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bengaluru
Taxa:
butterflies, moths, dragonflies and damselflies, cicadas, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals
Status:
Active
No. of participants:
Above 1000
Geographical spread of project:
ALL INDIA
Purpose of the project:
(a) To provide a species-based bioinformatics platform that is designed for aggregating, displaying and analysing peer-reviewed biodiversity data. (b) To host stand-alone, taxon-specific natural history websites that give ownership and primary recognition of the websites, and the data generated thereunder, to contributing naturalists and taxonomists.
Coordinating institution/organisation:
Indian Foundation for Butterflies, and National Centre for Biological Sciences
Location of the coordinating institution/organisation(s):
Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
Data availability:
Available upon request, without a fee
Participation in language other than English:
No
Appropriate age groups of participants:
All age groups
Citizen participation through:
Website
Why should people participate:
This is an advanced biodiversity informatics platform, home-grown and custom-made to serve native citizen scientists, and hosted in a national research institution. The focus is on collecting data on numerous aspects of species biology and therefore it is helpful in serving long-term goals of research and conservation.
Prior knowledge or expertise required:
No prior preparation or expertise is required, although prior experience will help contributors and users get more out of this platform. Thus, beginning as well as advanced naturalists, nature lovers, students and practicing scientists can participate in this project.