2021 South India Backyard Bioblitz Challenge

A four-week effort to safely document the rich biodiversity of South India

South India is the location of a major biodiversity hotspot, and many of its organisms are threatened or endangered. The iNaturalist community database has recently emerged as one of the premier tools for scientists to understand the distribution and abundance of biodiversity worldwide. While some regions of the world have been covered fairly extensively and thoroughly by iNaturalist, others, such as much of South India, still remain relatively poorly covered. By mobilizing nature lovers to document biodiversity in a concentrated and focused fashion, bioblitzes have a long and proven history all over the world of dramatically increasing documentation of a region's organisms, which assists the research of scientists and conservationists.

To participate, you need a smartphone, tablet, or a camera and computer.

1. If you are using a smartphone or tablet, download the iNaturalist app from Google Play or Apple Store.

2. Create an account on iNaturalist

3. Join the 2021 South India Backyard Bioblitz project: Project Link

4. Find local biodiversity (plants, animals, fungi) to document.

5. Take a picture through the iNaturalist app and Submit (here's a tutorial: How to make an observation on iNaturalist), or take a picture on your camera and upload to iNaturalist.

With tremendous participation from more than 500 community members who contributed as observers or identifiers between June 25 and July 24, 2021, we documented over 14,000 observations spanning over 2,800 species in just a month. We aimed high - over 5,000 observations covering a minimum of 1500 species. We not only met our goals but wildly exceeded them!

Hopefully, everyone had fun bioblitzing safely, and the event offered comfort and distraction through immersion in nature during the pandemic. Thank you all for this fantastic community work and for signing up to volunteer!

Overall - most observations, species, plants, animals, and fungi: @hive

Overall - most observations (2nd): @navaneethsinigeorge

Overall - most species (2nd): @sreenivasan

Andaman and Nicobar - most observations and species: @neelam2

Andhra Pradesh - most observations and species: @rajabandi

Karnataka - most observations and species: @subbu107

Kerala - most observations and species: @hive

Tamil Nadu - most observations: @dhrish_krish

Tamil Nadu - most species: @paulmathi

Telangana - most observations: @odonut

Telangana - most species: @surabhi_srivastava_gaur