THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Ever wondered how many different kinds of plants and animals live right in your backyard? Over 1,300 species, it would seem.
A backyard biodiversity challenge, launched by a group of nature enthusiasts in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown, has led to the spotting of as many as 1,330 species in the backyards of the houses of Kerala. These include insects, arachnids, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, other animals, protozoans, fungi, plants, chromista, molluscs and whatnot.
The campaign, under which biodiversity enthusiasts upload the flora and fauna filmed from their backyards to the www.inaturalist.org portal, was introduced in the ‘Lockdown Backyard Bioblitz Kerala’ page by iNaturalist, a joint initiative by the California Academy of Sciences and the National Geographic Society.
“When we usually talk about biodiversity conservation, we tend to focus on forest regions. But our backyard is equally vibrant with rich flora and fauna. We started the campaign with an aim to shift our focus to the backyards of our own houses,” said Manoj Karingamadathil, a naturalist and birder who took the initiative to launch the campaign. It is expected that by the time the exercise ends on June 1, over 1,500 different species will be recorded.
Renju Ezhupunna, a private hospital attender in Kochi and an avid naturalist, has uploaded pictures of around 130 different species to the site.
“I often wander around the eco-spots in my vicinity to film rare flora and fauna. But for the first time now, I turned my lenses to photograph the species commonly found around my house. Many of them even require conservation,” he said. Once wrapped up, the exercise will serve as an open data tool for various agencies and researchers.
“We will analyse the data after June 1. The highest number of uploads were of lizards. But even wild tuskers were spotted in the backyards of some houses at Nilambur. A study on the data will reveal the geographical distribution of various species found in the backyards in Kerala. In addition to finding new rare species, the campaign is also aimed at protecting those commonly found,” said Manoj. He added that the data would be an open repository for all.
1,330 species spotted so far
4,697 observations made by experts
7,497 different species identified