Posted on 26th September 2023

*India's Nature - Monsoon Beauty 23 : State and Union Territory wise Biodiversity Documentation: An

Introduction

In this journal post, we provide an overview of the state and union territory wise biodiversity documentation in India, during the Monsoon Beauty 23 event. We look at the leading regions, as well as those that have lower or no documentation. While we cannot fully explain the reasons behind the differences in the level of activity, we aim to present the available data. The list is ranked by most observations.

We have also summarised the states with the most observations, species, identifiers, and observers

We also highlight the top observers and their contributions in each region

In Part 2 we highlight regions with low iNaturalist activity and the results from the event.

The third part of this post includes a snapshot view of the current iNaturalist observations across all Indian States & Union Territories, along with a summary of the states with the most observations, species, identifiers, and observers. This provides a broad overview of the current state of biodiversity documentation in India on Inaturalist.

Once again the list is ranked by most observations.

Monsoon Beauty 23 : Contribution by States or Union Territories

Out of 36 Indian Administrative regions : 28 States and 8 Union Territories contributions were received from 29 regions while 8 regions posted 0 observations.

Most Observations : Uttarakhand - 14679

Most Observers : Karnataka & Uttarakhand - 28 each

Most Species : Uttarakhand - 1877

Most Identifiers : Uttarakhand - 505

The top observers (and their respective observations) are mentioned along side each region

The list below is ranked by number of observations, along with a mention of the top observer in each region:

• Note*: for the sake of this data set **Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu** are treated as separate entities
• Note*: *due to some differences we cannot establish there is a minor difference between the sum total for India here (52678( and what shows up as the Event total on the Monsoon Beauty Page

India's Nature: Raising Awareness of Biodiversity in States and Union Territories with Low Documentation

In India, many states and union territories are under-represented in terms of biodiversity documentation. This is likely due to a variety of factors, including:

• Lack of engagement with citizen science
• Low levels of environmental education
• Absence of active biodiversity, education, and conservation groups

• Possibly a few other reasons which have not been described here
  India's Nature has been holding virtual events to engage more individuals and communities in these states and territories with poor results. In the future, India's Nature will also attempt more direct engagements with individuals, groups, and other appropriate community-based agencies.

During the inaugural Monsoon Beauty event the threshold for such states was 3000 observations. This has been raised to 4500 and the current list of regions with low contributions figures (as on 24th Sept 2023) are shared below :

Inaturalist - State & Union Territory wise Biodiversity Documentation in India: A Snapshot (26th September 2023)

As on 26th Sept. 2023

Most Observations : Keraka - 283083

Most Observers : Karnataka - 5265

Most Species : Tamil Nadu - 10468

Most Identifiers : Maharashtra - 5862

The table below shows a snapshot of the biodiversity documentation and citizen scientist participation from each State and Union Territory in India

Clicking on the link should lead you to the exact current state.

Note* : On Inaturalist it seems a bit hard to collate **Dadra & Nagar Haveli, and Daman & Diu together so their links are shared below

Note: There is a minor discrepancy between the total number of observations for India, when viewed as a whole, and the sum of observations for all of the individual States and Union Territories. This may be due to a number of factors, including differences in how the data is classified and counted. While we cannot pinpoint the exact reason for the difference, we have taken care to ensure that all observations are included in the data provided.

Disclaimer: Biodiversity Data Accuracy

This information is sourced from iNaturalist.org, and while every effort has been made to ensure its accuracy, some errors may exist. Any errors are unintentional, and we apologize for any inconvenience they may cause.

Monsoon Beauty 23 - Updates and Highlights

Monsoon Beauty 2023 Highlights are documented on :

• Instagram
• Inaturalist Journals
• Telegram

India's Nature : Contact Information

• Whatsapp : +91 70372 45201
• Email : indias.nature01@gmail.com

Posted on September 26, 2023 07:03 PM by ram_k