ABOUT THE REPTILES OF INDIA PROJECT:
Full description in a structured format: See below.
200 words or less: India—a megabiodiverse country—is host to a spectacular number of reptiles, many of them endemic. Reptiles of India is a peer-reviewed biodiversity platform that is designed to disseminate comprehensive information on the biology of reptiles, encourage their observation to study natural history, gather population and distributional data in a centralized database, and spread awareness about reptile conservation. It is developed by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies ("IFoundButterflies"), a group of naturalists and biologists. It is a model of citizen science, where ordinary citizens participate in gathering scientific data on a free, yet authentic, online platform. This highly successful, home-grown community initiative has, over its six years of existence, helped generate detailed range maps and valuable information on occurrence, morphological variation and other aspects on the biology of Indian reptiles, including that of many endemic and endangered species. This rigorously tested and continually updated platform has become a standard reference on Indian reptiles for professional scientists and amateur naturalists alike.
100 words or less: India—a megabiodiverse country—is host to a spectacular number of reptiles, many of them endemic. Reptiles of India is a peer-reviewed biodiversity platform that is designed to disseminate comprehensive information on the biology of reptiles, encourage their observation to study natural history, gather population and distributional data in a centralized database, and spread awareness about reptile conservation. It is developed by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies ("IFoundButterflies"), a group of biologists and naturalists. It is a model of citizen science, where ordinary citizens participate in gathering scientific data on a free, yet authentic, online platform on Indian reptiles.
50 words or less: Reptiles of India is a biodiversity platform and a model citizen science project. It is designed to disseminate comprehensive information on the biology of Indian reptiles, encourage their observation to study natural history and ecology, gather population and distributional data in a centralized database, and spread awareness about reptile conservation.
ABOUT THE BIODIVERSITY ATLAS – INDIA CITIZEN SCIENCE PLATFORM:
100 words or less: Biodiversity Atlas – India provides a powerful natural history and citizen science 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. Thus, the platform supports efforts of one of the best integrated professional-amateur scientific collaboratives that aggregates biodiversity data with the goal of studying species biology and larger ecological trends. We use this platform and its website family for: (a) educational and other outreach programmes, and (b) helping state forest departments with management plans and other on-ground conservation policies and activities.
50 words or less: Biodiversity Atlas – India is a species-based bioinformatics platform. It is designed for aggregating, displaying and analysing biodiversity data from India. It is a distributed platform of stand-alone natural history websites, largely driven by citizen scientists. This platform is used extensively for research as well as educational and other outreach activities.
FULL DESCRIPTION OF THE REPTILES OF INDIA PROJECT IN A STRUCTURED FORMAT:
A. PRIMARY CONTACT
1. Project Coordinator: Prof. Krushnamegh Kunte
2.Email Address: krushnamegh@ifoundbutterflies.org
3. Phone Number: +91 6362-512-292, +91 9483-525-925
4. Role in the project: Chief Editor
5. Institutional Affiliation: Indian Foundation for Butterflies, and National Centre for Biological Sciences, TIFR, Bengaluru
B. INFORMATION ON THE PROJECT
1. Title of the Project: Reptiles of India
2. Subtitle or caption of the Project: Citizen science and biodiversity informatics for research, outreach and conservation of Indian reptiles
3. Year of Initiation: 2017
4. What taxa does this project cover?: Indian reptiles (also a considerable number of South Asian reptiles)
5. Keywords: Indian reptiles, biodiversity informatics, citizen science, biodiversity documentation, reptile species biology
6. Geographical spread of project: all India
7. Umbrella platform?: Biodiversity Atlas – India (https://www.bioatlasindia.org/)
8. Purpose of the project (goals and objectives): (a) To provide a species-based bioinformatics platform that is designed for aggregating, displaying and analysing peer-reviewed data on Indian reptiles, and (b) To build a strong community around research and conservation of Indian reptiles through citizen science and outreach.
9. Project Description: India—a megabiodiverse country—is host to a spectacular number of reptiles, many of them endemic. Reptiles of India is a peer-reviewed biodiversity platform that is designed to disseminate comprehensive information on the biology of reptiles, encourage their observation to study natural history, gather population and distributional data in a centralized database, and spread awareness about reptile conservation. It is developed by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies ("IFoundButterflies"), a group of biologists and naturalists. It is a model of citizen science, where ordinary citizens participate in gathering scientific data on a free, yet authentic, online platform on Indian reptiles.
10. Coordinating institution/organisation: Indian Foundation for Butterflies, and National Centre for Biological Sciences
11. Location of the coordinating institution/organisations: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India
12. Data availability: Available upon request free of charge, but with an expectation of a scientific collaboration for large datasets
C. INFORMATION ON PARTICIPATION
1. Age groups of people who can participate in this project: All age groups
2. Why should you participate in this project?: Reptiles of India is an advanced biodiversity informatics platform, home-grown and custom-made to serve citizen scientists in the country, and hosted in a national research institution. The focus is on collecting data on a variety of aspects of species biology, not only spatio-temporal occurrence, and therefore it is very helpful in serving long-term goals of research and species conservation. Since the platform is dedicated to Indian reptiles, it is possible to further customise this platform to offer data structures and features that are desired for specific purposes by indigenous naturalists, scientists and conservation managers.
3. What prior knowledge or expertise is required for people to participate in the project?: 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.
D. PROJECT OUTREACH AND BRANDING
1. Link to project website: https://www.indianreptiles.org
2. Link to project Twitter handle: @IFoundButterfly
3. Link to project’s Android app on Play Store and iOS app on the App Store: Will be provided once the mobile app is launched.
Contact us for further information and additional resources.