An app to map Ganga water, aquatic life

The Ganga Data Collector Android app quickens the tedious process of data collection while improving both data visualisation and security. (Source: WII)

The new application was launched during the second Endangered Species Recovery Programme organised on the WII campus last week. In the next phase, WII will train nearly 550 Ganga Prahris and staff of the forest departments of the states concerned. The Android-based app has been developed under the supervision of Ruchi Badola, who is head of Ecodevelopment Planning & Participatory Management in WII, and Niladri, the project scientist.

The Ganga basin covers 11 states including Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Delhi.

In the first phase, training will be given to volunteers and staff in five Ganga states including — Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal where Ganga stretches over 2,200-km. In the second phase, training will be given to the staff of the other six states of the Ganga basin.

According to WII scientists, at present over 40 researchers are already on Ganga — from Harsil in Uttarakhand to Nurpur in West Bengal – with kits of essential equipments to collect data related to quality of water, presence of different species of fishes, amphibians and reptiles, crocodiles and turtles, dolphins, birds, water level and weather. They will file these details in data-sheets along with information of date, time and location of collection data.