Biodiversity around home: A case study for monitoring urban biodiversity at Barrackpore town, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal

Tanmoy Kumar Dey; Purab Chowdhury; Nandita Barman; Arjan Basu Roy; Vijay Barve

doi:10.15468/c8vbcr

Biodiversity around home: A case study for monitoring urban biodiversity at Barrackpore town, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal

Citation

Kumar Dey T, Chowdhury P, Barman N, Basu Roy A, Barve V (2023). Biodiversity around home: A case study for monitoring urban biodiversity at Barrackpore town, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal. Nature Mates-Nature Club. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/c8vbcr accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-12-12.

Description

Urban biodiversity refers to the variety of living organisms found in densely inhabited areas. It is influenced by biogeographic and anthropogenic factors, especially the latter. In a world where climate change is no longer merely a chapter in textbooks but an everyday reality, there is a growing need to generate awareness among communities on the benefits of local biodiversity, how they are under threat from human activities and ultimately paving the way for their conservation, in order to achieve sustainable development goals. As with any conservation efforts, the first step involves monitoring in order to assess the current situation and to track the biodiversity evolution. Citizen science can come in handy in monitoring urban biodiversity - a single record of a species might not be very useful, but if many people come together and keep recording that species over a longer period of time, trends start to emerge which can then be analyzed, causes of decline in populations can be investigated and appropriate measures can be implemented. With the advent of affordable cameras and the Internet, India is seeing a steady rise in the number of birdwatchers, 'butterfliers' and hobbyists in other popular taxa. But there is a gap in the amount of citizen science being done - there is a lot of untapped biodiversity data stuck in hard drives and social media, which haven't made their way into more serious platforms. Through this project, Nature Mates aims to bridge this gap, helping individuals in structuring their biodiversity data and uploading to citizen science portals. For this dataset, the observer took photos from his home in Patulia, Barrackpore II Block, in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, between 2010 and 2011. It is a suburban area. Photos were taken during routine 'home-birding' sessions as well as of incidental finds. The location, date, time and taxonomic data from the photos were tabulated to create this dataset.

Sampling Description

Study Extent

All observations were made from the observer's home in Patulia Schoolpara, Barrackpore II Block, within a 25m radius.

Sampling

Random sampling

Method steps

Observation, photography, field notes

Taxonomic Coverages

Total 240 animals from various taxa (mainly birds, insects and spiders) were observed.

Animalia
common name: Fauna rank: kingdom

Geographic Coverages

Patulia Schoolpara, Barrackpore II Block, North 24 Parganas, West Bengal, India

Bibliographic Citations

Contacts

Tanmoy Kumar Dey
originator
position: Assistant professor
Adamas University
Barasat
Kolkata
700126
West Bengal
IN
email: tanmoydey7@gmail.com
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3157-7307

Purab Chowdhury
originator
position: Student
Burdwan Medical College & Hospital
Kolkata
700063
West Bengal
IN
email: purab2k@gmail.com
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6526-0271

Nandita Barman
originator
position: Researcher
Nature Mates-Nature Club
6/7 Bijoygarh
Kolkata
700032
West Bengal
IN
email: barmannandita283@gmail.com
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6109-7633

Arjan Basu Roy
originator
position: Secretary
Nature Mates-Nature Club
6/7 Bijoygarh
Kolkata
700032
West Bengal
IN
Telephone: 09874357414
email: basuroyarjan@gmail.com
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9872-3562

Vijay Barve
originator
position: Research Advisor
Nature Mates-Nature Club
6/7 Bijoygarh
Kolkata
700032
West Bengal
IN
email: vijay.barve@gmail.com
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4852-2567

Purab Chowdhury
metadata author
position: Student
Burdwan Medical College & Hospital
Kolkata
700063
West Bengal
email: purab2k@gmail.com
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6526-0271

Nandita Barman
metadata author
position: Researcher
Nature Mates-Nature Club
6/7 Bijoygarh
Kolkata
700032
West Bengal
IN
email: barmannandita283@gmail.com
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6109-7633

Nandita Barman
user
email: barmannandita283@gmail.com

Tanmoy Kumar Dey
administrative point of contact
position: Assistant professor
Adamas University
Barasat
Kolkata
700126
West Bengal
IN
email: tanmoydey7@gmail.com
userId: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3157-7307