BENGALURU: Did you know that leopard tails are longer than any other big cat’s? Or that tiger stripes are unique in nature, which help in identification? You can learn more such facts through a series of postcards. Citybased firm FlippAR’s newest project involved an order for a set of five postcards from the Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), featuring a map of the Park, the Southern Birdwing butterfly, leopards, tigers and sloth bears.
The first two were launched two months ago and the rest were out in April. “The idea was to use these as an educational tool to create more awareness about these animals,” says Vivek Mahaveer Jain, founder of FlippAR, a Bengaluru-based company that develops augmented reality (AR) applications. The firm has in the past produced similar AR-enabled postcards on landmarks in the city. To unlock these features, one has to scan the postcard with the FlippAR app. This time, the postcards feature 3D figures of the animals, along with information in English and Kannada.
“People can get an idea of some characteristics of the animal, how the park came to acquire them, who looks after them and so on,” says Jain. Work on the project began four months ago, with all artwork created in-house at FlippAR. The team interacted closely with BBP officials to ensure all information and pictorial representation of the animals was accurate.
“If you look at the leopard postcard, it shows the animal perched on a branch, against the backdrop of high-rise buildings. The team at BBP paid great attention to detail. Even something minor like how the leopard sat was looked into to ensure we got the specifics right,” explains Jain. Each creature featured on these postcards was chosen for a reason. The Southern Birdwing butterfly is the official state butterfly, whereas tigers were chosen because according to the 2018 census, Karnataka takes second position in the number of tigers in the wild at 524.
The leopard and sloth bear were chosen due to the man-animal conflict that often involves them. “There have been many instances where these animals have come across human establishments. So we wanted to highlight some dos and don’ts in case one were to encounter a leopard or a sloth bear. It might help ensure safety for both humans and the animal,” says Jain. The postcards are not for sale and are available to visitors at the park. Since BBP is currently closed due to Covid-19 restrictions, people can check out the works on FlippAR’s Instagram feed (@flipparworld).