There are so many trees out there that leave us tongue-tied, not always on account of the grandeur of their blooms. Sometimes, it’s just that we are at a loss, not knowing what to call them. If you are one of those budding tree-watchers seeking to wrap your head around the trees in your backyard, the portal SeasonWatch.in can surely help you — at last count, this pan-India initiative that is around 10 years old has details about 82,369 trees listed, based on 3,71,032 observations, made by 1080 individuals and 918 schools.
However, SeasonWatch has larger objectives that it would like to be known for. One of them is to understand how each species interacts with its environment, and promotes biodiversity. The other objective is to monitor trees for changes in their usual functions — such as being in bloom or in fruit earlier or later than they are supposed to be. The species-specific details of this nature are fascinating as they have been keyed in from different parts of India. These are details fed by citizens across the country.
SeasonWatch is a three-way partnership between Nature Conservation Foundation, National Centre for Biological Sciences and Wipro Applying Thought in Schools. The online initiative was started in 2010 by Suheil Quader.
Online events constitute one of the strengths of SeasonWatch, and many of them have helped the portal soak up considerable amounts of data in relatively shorter time frames. In 2019, over a lakh observations got added due to events like ‘Bioblitz’ and ‘Tree Quest’. “Bioblitz is where citizens across the country collect information on as many trees as possible, on the same four days, says Geetha Ramaswami, programme manager, SeasonWatch.
These short-duration events register sizeable citizen participation as people manage to find the time for it. In contrast, due to the time it may take, people approach long-duration programmes with an automatic resistance, points out Geetha.
Schools play a role in gathering data. Schools from Kerala top the list of contributors. Schools from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Meghalaya are the other major contributors.
Geetha adds a lot of data comes from Kerala, and expresses the hope that there will be similar enthusiasm from other parts of the country. In Kerala, SeasonWatch partners with Mathrubhumi and in Meghalaya with the State Council for Science Technology and Environment.
Members can choose how they want to be engaged in this exercise. There are the options of a signing up for ‘regular observation’ and ‘one-time observation’.
Data duplication
“Earlier, the odds of data duplication were low. However, with more sign-ups, checking data duplication is a challenge. Another challenge is calling out wrong observations. Though we informally check with the person about the tree and its features, we want to put in place, an automated system where our App flags off wrong observations,” says Geetha.
Observations are crucial in piecing together a picture about flowering and fruiting patterns of trees, and hence the search for systems to ensure only right observations get past the gate.
There have been so many findings and the logical outcome of that is a scientific paper.
“Our team is working on a scientific paper; it’s a work in progress,” says Geetha.
On some of the fascinating studies that have been done so far, she says, “We have been able to derive the baseline phenological patterns of some common species such as mango and jackfruit. In Indian Laburnum, we have been able to detect an advancement in flowering as compared to the expected flowering time.”
There are always efforts to make the initiative more inviting and a recent effort lets participants learn about the world of trees through games invented by teachers and students.
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This government school teacher is a valuable contributor
salem school
This government school teacher from Salem has been encouraging the students of his school and a few other schools to make voluntary contributions towards building a knowledge base of the trees on their campuses.
“In fact, I am not a science teacher. My subject is English but I was always fascinated with nature,” says P. Rajangam, who teaches at the Panchayat Middle School Salem. For the last one year, his school has been a regular contributor to SeasonWatch. “I started learning the names and characteristics of trees by posting pictures of them in the WhatsApp group,” he says. The school has a bird-watching club that meets every week, so along with observing trees, they have been scanning the trees in the backyard for birds. “Many of our students can also identify trees,” he says. They have also planted many trees to attract birds to the campus.
Rajangam says he has encouraged three neighbouring schools to start making observations and recording them. “By helping them observe trees and birds, we can increase the curiosity level among students as well as get students to come to school regularly,” he says.
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A spring in their leaves
SeasonWatch is celebrating spring inviting people to make observations about some colourful trees until the end of March. The objective of this challenge is to find and observe six species during the festival — Rain Tree, Indian Laburnum, Indian Coral, Red silk cotton, gulmohur and mango.
On March 21 and 22, Season Watch will be organising tree walks across India. In Chennai, they have partnered with Nizhal for the event.
For details, write to sw@seasonwatch.in
