Kolkata and Hyderabad have topped a programme of observation of urban bio-diversity conducted by school students among four cites, including Mumbai and Delhi, using mobile applications.
The project is also aimed at monitoring the change in urban bio-diversity due to climate change. There were three applications for birds, butterflies and trees developed by a Mumbai-based private organisation.
“Students from both Hyderabad and Kolkata recorded more than 1,000 sightings [of various birds, butterflies and trees] in the programme,” said V. Shubhalaxmi, the founder and director of Ladybird Sustainability Consulting that developed the applications. At the programme called Urban iNaturewatch Challenge, the participants shared their findings on International Earth Day. Here, more than 600 students from 10 schools participated, Hyderabad also witnessed participation of an equal number of students from eight schools. In Mumbai, about 300 students took part in the programme from about 15 schools and in Delhi about 200 students participated from eight schools.
Whereas in Kolkata, Hyderabad and New Delhi the programme was organised in collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature-India (WWF), in Mumbai it was done in partnership with another non-government organisation. “We had to work with another organisation in Mumbai as the WWF does not have much presence in Mumbai,” Ms. Shubhalaxmi told The Hindu .
The applications — iTrees, iBirds and iButterflies — contain information about 50 species of tress, birds and butterflies. These applications are free and can be used offline.
