The India Biodiversity Portal, Citizen Science, and Coexistence
Since its inception as a map-based platform in 2008, the India Biodiversity Portal has gradually evolved into a dynamic storehouse of primary biodiversity data. Today, it allows people to directly contribute primary biodiversity data while also encouraging citizen science engagement.
The Coexistence Project is a significant endeavour that reflects the portal's dedication to not only addressing the issues of conservation in a human-dominated landscape but also responding to the need for more complex information that reveals patterns and relationships within an ecosystem. This talk explored the portal and the project in tandem, to think about the coexistence dynamics between biodiversity and human activities by capturing intricate aspects of species attributes, habitat characteristics, and ecological interactions.
As cities such as Bengaluru undergo rapid urbanisation, the resulting habitat and biodiversity loss pose challenges for coexistence. Documenting incidents of this interaction in a structured manner becomes imperative for effective conservation strategies and urban planning that foster harmonious cohabitation.
About the Scientist
Thomas Vattakaven is a Senior Application Scientist at Strand Life Sciences. He holds a PhD in microbiology obtained from the University of the West of England, Bristol, in 2010. He has been actively involved with the India Biodiversity Portal since 2012, where his role includes aggregating biodiversity information for India. Passionate about biodiversity informatics, data manipulation, and citizen science, Thomas contributes to proposal writing, fundraising, and management of data upload, analysis, and publishing for the portal. His interests extend to engaging the public in citizen science and understanding its role in aggregating open-access biodiversity information.