Category: Citizen Science
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Analyzing Vegetation Cover Change in Dheerpur Wetland Restoration Site
Shiwani The success of an ecological restoration project is based on several key attributes such as the progress/recovery of ecosystem function and structure. A timely assessment/evaluation of the progress of the restoration activities is an important step in measuring the progress. It further helps in monitoring the changes and emergent patterns that could be of…
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Conservation Through Citizen Science
Himanshu Choudhery Worldwide, the field of biological conservation has been increasingly seeing the involvement of people of all ages. From amateur wildlife explorers to the more experienced ones, everyone is actively contributing to the conservation of biodiversity. This active participation and collaboration of the general public with professionals in scientific research is known as citizen science.…
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How to Map Changes Using Landviewer – A Step by Step Guide
Shiwani Maps are extremely handy tools that can be used to visualize and illustrate a wide variety of complex data, that make interpretation of geographical information an engaging process. It helps us in making sense of comprehensive spatial relationships simultaneously with temporal changes. There was a time when mapping changes, accessing and studying remote areas…
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Avid Birding in Covid Times: Experience from Guwahati
Fizala Tayebulla This post is a personal account of birds that I have curated from my “Corona_Birding_Ghy” photo album. I understand that maybe not everyone is crazed about birding as an activity. It is tedious, often accompanied by neck strain from looking upwards through branches of tall trees for long periods (or until one is…
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Birding from my Balcony
Ajay Immanuel Gonji Growing up as a child, I loved animals and birds. One of my first experiences watching animals was when my dad would take me around our neighbourhood on the scooter showing me cows and buffaloes. At home, the pets I grew up with included fishes, ducks, chickens, rabbits, dogs, mynas, pigeons, parakeets…
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Sightings of Lesser Whistling Ducks in the middle of the city amidst Corona lockdown
Fizala Tayebulla Most of us have hopefully managed to access some secure place for the emergency lockdown brought upon by the Corona virus pandemic. I, for one was fortunately able to travel back home to Guwahati, Assam timely, a few days before the travel ban in India. Taking a while to settle down at home…
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Birding for an Amateur
Divya Mehra Every February, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology organises ‘The Great Backyard Bird Count’ (GBBC), a worldwide citizen science event encouraging birders, students, and the general public to count and identify birds found in their surrounding areas. The event is a fun, and easy way of engaging bird watchers from all age groups in…
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Gust of Dust
Shiwani The Indo-Gangetic Plains stretching from north India all the way to the east have been witnessing very poor air-quality during the pre-monsoon season (March to May) for the past few years. Delhi, due to its geographical location, is placed in the middle of the dust-laden Westerly winds originating from the Arabian Peninsula or the…
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A Way Towards Nature Education for Young Children
Fizala Tayebulla The brain-to-body mass ratio in humans is relatively higher in comparison to any other species. This can be seen simply by comparing the total number of neurons of a human brain with that of other species. For instance, while the human brain is composed of 16.3 billion neurons, the number of neurons in…
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Understanding Urban Transformation Through Imagery
Shiwani Urbanization is cosmopolitan. And what can be an interesting yet simple way to see this urbanization transform a landscape over time? Visual imagery is the way to go. Visualization makes it easy for people to understand various phenomena, including changes that are taking place on-ground, and the scale and intensity at which these changes…