From insects to trees: Over 30 Indian cities participate in City Nature Challenge

Source: The post is based on the article “From insects to trees: Over 30 Indian cities participate in City Nature Challenge” published in The Hindu on 20th April 2023

What is the News?

Over 30 Indian cities are set to participate in the City Nature Challenge.

Note: Bombay Natural History Society, World Wide Fund for Nature-India, and The Naturalist School have partnered to lead the event in cities like Bengaluru, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi.

What is the City Nature Challenge?

City Nature Challenge is an international effort for people to find and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe. 

The event was first organized in the U.S. in 2016 by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences.

How does the City Nature Challenge work?

It is an app-based competition that records observations of nature.

Under this challenge, participants can use the iNaturalist app to click and upload a photo of natural flora and fauna.

The app uses Artificial Intelligence to suggest the species name. Community members will collaborate to confirm these suggestions.

GPS coordinates for the observation are picked up automatically from the image data.

Once an observation is confirmed, it becomes available to scientists and researchers who can use this data to research different plant and animal species or determine the biodiversity in a region.

The city with the most observations recorded over four days (April 28 to May 1) will be the winner.

What is the Bombay Natural History Society(BNHS)?

Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) is a pan-India wildlife research organization. It has been promoting the cause of nature conservation since 1883.

Aim: To spread awareness about nature through science-based research, conservation advocacy, education, scientific publications, nature tours and other programmes.