One of the most startling developments in the past two decades is the massive impact that citizen science has had in generating data on global biodiversity. Citizen science projects are changing the landscape of scientific datasets and biodiversity informatics that are poised to fundamentally change how information is gathered, assimilated, parsed out, analyzed and used in other ways by citizens, naturalists, biologists and governments alike. One of the most prominent citizen science projects in the area of Indian biodiversity has been the cluster of natural history websites on Indian faunal diversity that is run largely by a strong network of citizens with shared vision and dedication. These websites have now been brought under the umbrella of the Biodiversity Atlas – India Project. In the next few years we hope to expand this citizen science effort into numerous directions, including creation of new taxon-specific websites on the flora and fauna of India, and considerable increase in outreach and data collection. Further details of these developments will be announced in due course as these things take shape.
Read about the developments of citizen science initiatives on butterflies and moths here:
Sondhi, S. and K. Kunte. 2020. The role of citizen science in studying Lepidoptera biology and conservation in India. Indian Entomologist, 1:14-23. PDF file (1.2MB).