When everyone is locked up inside their homes at the time of Coronavirus, the wild animals are out roaming the city streets and villages. All these have been filmed and widely circulated in the social media. And now, the Wild Life Institute of India is for collecting the wild life movements in human dominated areas that could help in wildlife conservation and management in the long run.
The Wildlife Institute of India has already come up with an aap named ‘Lockdown Wildlife Tracker’ for collecting data of wildlife movement. The aap can be downloaded from WII’s website using the link https://wii.gov.in/lockdown_wildlife_tracker. Once the application is downloaded, photos can be uploaded along with GPS location. This is a free to use application.
In the website, the institute said: “You can help us in this initiative by reporting your sightings from your homes and be a part of a science experiment! Lockdown Wildlife Tracker is an app which makes it easy to record wildlife from the comfort of your home! These sightings can be reported real time as well as at any later period – but only till the lockdown lasts! What is more… You can even upload photos of your sightings to the app! This app makes it convenient to keep track of what you see, while making your data openly available for scientific research, education, and conservation.”
The sources said that the data uploaded in the aap would help wildlife officials to understand human-wildlife interface in a better way. Reports said that the institute will share the data with the states. They said that detailed State Specific Reports will be prepared and a National Report will follow.
