City Nature Challenge

About City Nature Challenge:

• What it is? Under this initiative, participants can use the iNaturalist app (available for Android and Apple phones) 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 Bombay Natural History Society, World Wide Fund for Nature-India, and The Naturalist School have partnered to lead this event.
• The event was first organised in the U.S. in 2016 by the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences

Key Facts about the Bombay Natural History Society

• It is a pan-India wildlife research organization, that has been promoting the cause of nature conservation since 1883.
• Its vision is the conservation of nature, primarily biological diversity through action based on research, education and public awareness.
• It is the partner of BirdLife International in India. BirdLife International is a global partnership of conservation organisations that strives to conserve birds, their habitats and global biodiversity.
• It has been designated as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (SIRO) by the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India

What is a Scientific and Industrial Research Organization?

• It is a recognition Scheme which will bring together voluntary organizations operating in a non-commercial sector to promote their activities in the area of scientific and industrial research, design and development of indigenous technology to achieve technological self-reliance and minimize foreign inputs.