iTrees

A Field Guide to Common Trees of Urban India launched by LEC

A product of Ladybird Environmental Consulting (LEC) is a series of nature based Mobile apps developed to promote nature study widely across the Indian Cities. This tree mobile app covers 50 common tree species found in metros such as Mumbai, Kolkata, New Delhi and Hyderabad. The app has been developed to study climate change impact on urban biodiversity in Indian metros. Trees being indicator species, a seasonal variation in their leaf fall, flowering or fruiting will provide indication whether climate change is affecting Indian trees.

These mobile apps are being developed under the U.S. State Department's International Exchange Alumni programme- Alumni Innovation Engagement Fund's Project- Mobile Apps 4 Climate Change. Dr. V.Shubhalaxmi has been the sole winner from India who won the global competition wherein 1000 proposals were submitted and only 53 finalists were chosen world over. She alongwith her four team members; Dr. Swayamprabha Das, Dr. Ashutosh Richarriya, Dr. Anirban Gupta and Mr. Isaac Kehimkar have launched student citizen science programme in 10 schools of New Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkatta and Mumbai. For this endeavour, they have partnered with WWF-India and Greenline.To learn more about this initiative visit our project website www.inaturewatch.org

The app is targeted towards young students who have taken fancy to gadgets such as smartphones and tablets. The idea is to engage students by use of technology and assist them in their project work which could involve documentation of local flora. This app is also a tool for environmental educators specially teachers who sometimes do not have access to natural history resources or persons. The app brings tree identification to finger tips of its users thus providing an alternate tool besides an expert or field guide.

The app describes 50 species of trees along with their pictures of leaf fruit, bark, common English and Latin name, height, geographical range, details about leaves, flowers, fruits, uses and associations. The language has been kept non-technical however incase of unavoidable technical words, a glossary if provided to explain these terms.Once you download this Android app either on your smartphone or tablet, please keep updating your app as we will be improvising and rectifying some of the technical and information errors. In case you come across a tree which is not available in this app, we have provided list of books and online resources wherein you could get your tree identified. Happy Treewatching!

This app is a brainchild of Dr.V.Shubhalaxmi so saw the gap between learner and educator, plus apathy towards environment by urban people. Having worked for BNHS for 21 years, she left to start her own social enterprise- Ladybird Environmental Consulting . Her company specializes in environmental CSR. To learn more visit her website www.ladybirdconsulting.co.in.

This app is a hard work of 37 people who worked on it besides the principal content developers; Mr. Isaac Kehimkar and Dr. V.Shubhalaxmi, the creative team of LycodonFx did an excellent job of converting our dream idea into a reality. In the domain of environment there are very few vendors who are equipped with natural history know how and product execution. In this regard LycodonFx is highly recommended to all those who wish to develop new environmental products. Visit their website www.lycodonfx.com and see for yourself.

Copyright (C) 2015. All rights reserved with Ladybird Environmental Consulting. Any reproduction of any part of the mobile apps in print/electronic without appropriate permission is not allowed.

Citation

Vaylure, Shubhalaxmi, Isaac Kehimkar (Eds), Sameer Kehimkar, Alisha Kehimkar, Amit Kehimkar (2014), Mobile Apps for Climate Change (v.1.0 iTrees)- U.S. State Department's Alumni Innovation Engagement Fund, Ladybird Environmental Consulting, Mumbai.

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