Akshay Khandekar, one of the curators of the website along with Giri, said that for each reptile species, one can also see their early stages, distribution, identification, status habitats and habits.
In a first, a team of researchers using the citizen's science programme have decided to bring together the Indian herpetology community by setting up a dedicated 'crowd-sourced' website on reptiles, which will also prove to be a critical resource.
Speaking to DNA, Herpatologist Varad Giri said that the website — Reptiles of India — serves three basic objectives: First, to consolidate available information on Indian reptiles and make it freely available on the website, secondly, to actively collect new information on all aspects of Indian reptiles through research, and thirdly, to communicate this information to policy-makers and work with various governing bodies so that the information is used to conserve reptiles and their habitats in India.
"Several people and amateur reptile enthusiasts used to take photographs of various reptiles — some even extremely rare, but nothing was done apart from sharing it on social media. But here it was decided to provide such people a platform to upload their photographs of different species and to help create a bank," said Giri, adding that the website already has around images of 240 reptile species of the 615 found in India.
Akshay Khandekar, one of the curators of the website along with Giri, said that for each reptile species, one can also see their early stages, distribution, identification, status habitats and habits. "Its a one stop information site and we urge people to contribute as it will make this website a very strong resource. Every single image sent is first curated and the species is identified. Only then is it uploaded to ensure there is no mistake," he said.
The portal features various reptiles including crocodiles, lizards, snakes, turtles and tortoises. "We have received images of several rare reptiles, including Jaipore ground gecko, Jerdon pit viper, spotter eastern ghat skink and others. While we encourage those uploading images to add the location too, in case they feel they don't want a rare species to be disturbed, they can give a broad location like the district too," shared Giri.
The website was the idea of naturalist Krushnamegh Kunte, Varad Giri, Akshay Khandekar and has been designed by Purnendu Roy.
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