The
Botanical Survey of India (BSI) has developed the first open-access online
database of India's floral diversity to document over 18,000 flowering plant
species in an effort at boosting digitisation and conservation of endangered
ones.
The
'eFlora India' test site was launched by BSI in July 2015, on the occasion of
the 'Digital India Week'.
The
portal, once formally launched, will also serve as an updated plant checklist
of India, said BSI director Paramjit Singh.
"The
information in the Flora of India volumes published by BSI will be available
through this portal in the database form. This consists of more than 6,000
pages of printed treatments covering around 4,500 taxa (a taxonomic category)
belonging to 92 families," Singh told IANS.
"This
effort puts India at par with neighbouring countries, like China, Nepal and
Pakistan that already have such e-repositories," Singh said.
Further,
he said, in keeping with emerging threats to floral abundance in India such as
climate change, 'eFlora India' serves as a primary database on Indian floral
diversity and could be used to carry out comparisons in case of any threat
perception on a particular population.
The
IT expertise for the novel initiative was provided by Centre for Development of
Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Kolkata.
According
to Mina Desai, principal engineer, CDAC, the online knowledge database, supported
by a robust decision-support system, will help connect researchers across the
globe to share insights and co-operate on botanical studies and analysis,
keeping Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) reserved.
"It
will help in modelling and data mining as well as analytics to gain insights
into evolving issues related to plant diversity," Desai told IANS, adding
sophisticated computing such as concept mapping (graphical tools for organising
and representing knowledge) form a core component of the web-based tool.
A
Decision Support System (DSS) is a computer-based information system that
enables organisational decision-making activities and helps in making decisions
about problems that may be rapidly changing and not easily specified in
advance.
This
feature aims to produce real-time and useful information for scientists
concerned with conservation management in specific regions of the country.
The
web application will facilitate one to glean information regarding flora by
family, genus and provide updated correct scientific name and will be
accompanied with high resolution images in near future.
"It
will provide a rough idea about the location of the plant and the extent of its
distribution in India. That way, any one working on conservation can use this data
and analyse for strategies for conservation," said Singh, adding the BSI
plans to digitise over two million herbarium collections representing
distribution of plants in time and space.
"We
are also planning to link it with Geographic Information System (GIS) in future
so that precise place of occurrence can be provided," said the director.
The
database also targets common man.
"It
has a user-friendly interface and students or anyone wishing for complete
information on one site can access it," added S.S. Dash, scientist, BSI.
The
application currently has information on 4,000 species and is being loaded with
more data.
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