Goals and strategy
Contents
What is biodiversity
The official definition of biodiversity, as adapted by UN Convention on Biological Diversity is "the variability among living organisms from all sources, including, 'inter alia', terrestrial, marine, and other aquatic ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they are part: this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems"[1]
Simply speaking, it is the variation in the life forms in a given ecosystem. More the biodiversity, healthier is the ecosystem.
Biodiversity of India
India is a country rich in biological diversity. It lies within the Indomalaya ecozone and houses two of the 34 biodiversity hotspot in the world [2]. There is a huge species diversity in India, with several of the species being endemic to the their native ranges in India[citation needed].
| Group |
Number |
% of world species |
| Mammals |
350 |
7.6% |
| Birds |
1224 |
12.6% |
| Amphibians |
197 |
4.4% |
| Reptiles |
408 |
6.2% |
| Fishes |
2546 |
11.7% |
| Flowering plants |
15000 |
6% |
Sources: Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre (IGCMC), New Delhi [3] and IISc [4]
These species have not only contributed to the environmental wellness of India but also its cultural diversity. Arguably, the nation is the most demographically diverse in the world. Only the continent of Africa exceeds the linguistic, genetic and cultural diversity of the nation of India.[5]. The country houses 1.6 billion people speaking 1652 languages and dialects[6], spread out over more than two thousand ethnicities and over every major religion. This vast cultural diversity, coupled with the polytheistic tenets of Hinduism, has created an intricate relationship between the culture and biodiversity of India. Plants such as the Indian Banyan and Holy Basil are considered sacred. So are animals like the cow, elephant and the lion.
The biodiversity, especially that in the plant species, has also been used in traditional medicinal systems such as Ayurveda & Unani and in local folk-healing practices. Many of these practices do not exist in written word and those that are documented are not readily accessible. More critically, the knowledge of these practices and the associated knowledge of local biodiversity is being lost at an alarming rate in all parts of India[citation needed]. The Brahma Project aims to contain this trend through the collaborative power of the world wide web. By putting the power to document and characterize India's biodiversity in the hands of anyone with a computer and an internet access.
Overall mission of the Brahma Project
The grand objective behind this Project is to document all of India's biodiversity - each and every plant, animal and fungal species - with contributions from trusted people and organizations from different parts of the world. This will be accomplished through this website which is essentially "social" in nature. A website which will not only provide traditional information about the species - its medicinal value, its growth characteristics, identification parameters, geographic range, its name in different Indian languages etc - but also integrate it with modern knowledge such as:
- Its place in Linnean taxonomy,
- Conservation status of that species
- Morphology and Life cycle informaitn
- Habitat and geographical spread
- Its use in traditional and modern medicine
- Genetic and molecular data
- Knowledge of its commercial uses
The website would have hyper-linked text written in Wikipedia format, pictures, maps, audio and videos. The final goal is not only to document what is already known in India about a given species, but put it in the larger scientific and global context with the hope that more people, sitting in any corner of the world will join this movement and understand the immense importance of biodiversity in human lives.
Obviously, the above aim is a very ambitious and it certainly cannot be completed in one or two years. But with social participation, involvement of colleges, departments, NGOs, researchers alike we can make significant progress in this direction.
Specific mission of the Brahma Project
The specific goals of this project are as follows:
1) To enable "good-quality", "social", "hyper-linked", "internet-based" and "referenced" documentation of plants, animals and fungi of India
2) To integrate traditional and modern knowledge about the biodiversity in India
3) To integrate existing Wikipedia entries and project-specific knowledge about a given species
4) To provide resources for further education, research and conservation efforts into this area
Significance of the Brahma Project
Strategy and broad timeline
The current aim is to make the website public in early 2011. Click here for a more detailed Strategy and Timeline.
References
- ^ "Glossary:Biological Diversity as defined by Convention on Biological Diversity". http://www.biodiv.be/glossary_keywords/B/biological_diversity. Retrieved 2010--5-13.
- ^ Hotspots by region
- ^ Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre (IGCMC), New Delhi and the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), World Conservation Monitoring Center, Cambridge, UK. 2001.
- ^ Biodiversity profile for India.
- ^ India, a Country Study United States Library of Congress, Note on Ethnic groups
- ^ Mother Tongues of India According to the 1961 Census
