Species Mapping Using Citizen Science Approach Through IBIN Portal: Use Case in Foothills of Himalaya

In this era of rapid global change, biodiversity monitoring and improving species repository to meet requirements toward conservation is costly affairs and needs a practical solution to identify and locate species with habitats. The integrated approach of citizen science and information technologies has proven to be effective solution for geographical and taxonomical data collection with public engagement, covering local to national scale. As a first step, a mobile app is designed and developed for the IBIN (Indian Bioresource Information Network), a digitized collection of the biological resources of India that serves as a common platform to access spatial and non-spatial information on biorecources can host their data through this single and intuitive platform with full privileges and authenticity. IBIN mobile app can be seen as an efficient and rapid solution to record data on species, utilizing GPS and camera features of mobile devices. Present paper deals with the citizen science approaches, its contribution in biodiversity field, outlines the design and development of IBIN mobile app and its first case study carried out at foothills of Himalaya.