For many years, we are involved in citizen science projects concerning owls, dragonflies, and roadkills. Over the years, due to the availability of Cit Sci portals and advances in networking through social media, the citizen science movement in India has gathered quite a power. We, along with our several collaborators, have been using Cit Sci portals and social media for understanding diversity and distribution.
I am the founder and coordinator for the annual DrgonflySouthAsia (formerly DragonflyIndia) meeting. Since 2014, we have been conducting these meetings and have trained 100+ participants in Odonatology. As a result of these meetings and workshops, we have successfully established a network of odonatologist and enthusiasts over the country and abroad.
DragonflySouthAsia
A citizen-science fueled community of odonatologists across South Asia, members of DragonflySouthAsia are actively involved in research, conservation, and outreach on odonates. The community is 9000+ members strong. The citizen science portal for DSA is DragonflyIndia iNaturalist Project. We organize annual meetings of DragonflySouthAsia in the form of a meeting of odonatologists followed by a three-day long workshop on odonatology.
Odonata of India
I am a part of a well-moderated website dedicated to documenting Odonata fauna from India called Odonata of India. The website is an excellent resource for information on Indian odonates.
OwlIndia
To facilitate the deposition of spatial distribution data on Strigidae members, I have created an iNaturalist project. The project is a part of DiversityIndia. The project is connected with BirdIndia and few other small projects, for easy exchange of data. Following the footsteps of DragonflySouthAsia Meetings, we plan to initiate OwlIndia meetings to discuss about nocturnal birds, especially owls which are under severe threat of habitat loss and poaching.
Roadkill Network
It is a long-term initiative. This group aims at documenting wildlife roadkills across India. We hope that this data could be used for several purposes involving studies on animal movement, habitat fragmentation, tourism pressure, conservation planning, and management.
We are coming up with several Biodiversity Informatics projects soon. Some of these are listed below. People working in these projects typically have knowledge related to statistical analysis, R/Python programming, interest in Citizen Science, and biodiversity.
Dragonfly Citizen Science Apps
We have started working on analyzing spatio-temporal patterns in Odonata species richness globally. The project is in collaboration with the Computer Engineering & Technology Department of MIT-WPU and Kansas State University (USA).
We will soon be launching citizen science apps specially designed for recording and identification of dragonflies. The project is in collaboration with the Computer Engineering & Technology Department of MIT-WPU.