Hi, Aparna ji, I fully agree with Janaki ji. I am qouting in this regard my views on the Draft of Task Force forwarded by you as below (I hope our honourable members care for it). *I would also like to have your views in the matter*:
"The relevant aspects from the draft report, which require serious attention of this group, along with my views are reproduced below. I seek your independant opinions on the report as well as on my views so that these are finalised before submitting to the Task Force: "*Flora and Fauna of India Theprimary mandate of the BSI/ZSI is to document the plant/ animal resources of the country. Hence an important focus of their activity would be to complete the Flora/ Fauna of India. Indiahas produced a large number of fine taxonomists, many of whom work outside BSI/ZSI, e.g., universities, research organizations and as emeritus scientists. Therefore, it is important that BSI/ZSI now take on the role of coordinating and pooling the expertise of all the taxonomists including those working outside this organization to consolidate the Flora and Fauna of India volumes. This is particularly important because the local field biologists and experts who have spent a considerable amount of time in a particular geographical area can add tremendous information on habitat, associations, biogeography and population status. Floras/ Faunas written by the individuals having limited field knowledge, merely based on the museum/ herbarium specimens lack in such information. Coordinated work on Flora/ Fauna of India should also include all the works on various taxonomic groups done through AICOPTAX Project of MoEF. Such coordination would of course require a strong editorial board and a few full time dedicated executive secretaries. This should be achievable in 10 years and should figure out as Priority I in BSI/ZSI’s Vision 2020 document. This could be achieved in the following phases: i. Establish a panel of experienced and active taxonomists for each state and take their consent on participation in Flora / Fauna Project, ii. Prepare an annotated checklist of vascular plants and other taxa under consideration for each state / UTs based on all published documents and herbaria, giving local names, if any, locality and habitat, iii. Circulate the electronic version of checklists among the panel of botanists/ zoologists who would, in turn, check for omissions, ambiguities, localities and habitat through active consultation with other local botanists/ zoologists, iv. To begin with, state floras/ faunas should be published electronically giving correct names, basionyms, localities, habitat, sketches and photographs of important species preferably on an interactive ‘Flora/ Fauna of India Blog’. On this page all naturalists, photographers and biological artists should be encouraged to contribute information on taxonomy, distribution, natural history, biology, ethnobiology, etc. This will also act as an outreach programme for all the biologists. The ethnobiological surveys should be done mainly by the local biologists, college and university teachers, working with local Biodiversity Management Committees under technical guidance by BSI/ZSI. v. An editorial board may be constituted at the national level to decide the format of the flora/ fauna and also assign plant/ animal families for compilation which should include nomenclature, description, ecology, natural history, distribution, sketches and photographs.*" I am not clear what it means by *‘Flora/ Fauna of India Blog’* & seek Madhav ji's guidance in the matter particularly w.r.t the word *Blog*. Also it is not clear whether it will be accessible to all or not. I think any restriction on its access as far as its contents are concerned, should go away in view of the 'Approach' followed in the paper (as subsequently highlighted). While it is encouraging to see " *To begin with, state floras/ faunas should be published electronically giving correct names, basionyms, localities, habitat, sketches and photographs of important species preferably on an interactive ‘Flora/ Fauna of India Blog’.* " in the draft, there is hardly anything which talks of creating e-flora of India on the lines of e-flora of China & other neighbouring countries. I feel 'AICOPTAX Project' of MoEF should be sufficiently strengthened with a mandate for simultaneously creating of e-Flora/ e-Fauna of India on lines of e-Floras of different countries of the world. How to go about creating e-floras is evident at link: http://flora.huh.harvard.edu/china/PDF/misc/eFloras_Taxon_55_188-192_2006.pdf This becomes all the more important as the report in its 'Approach' rightly talks of *"......Finally, the culmination of evolution of artifacts to the present day Information and Communication Technology has brought us to the threshold of a tenth major transition: x] Language based human societies –to- Human societies with global access to the entire stock of human knowledge, and engaged in an endeavour of collaborative knowledge generation." *This approach will remain an illusion until & unless we are able to create e-Flora/ e-Fauna of India which is accessible to all human community & appear in top 10 while searching as far as 'Indian species' are concerned. The need of the hour is to move fast in this regard, if India is to be visible on the world map. It is sad that we have to refer to 'e-Flora of China', 'e-Flora of Pakistan' etc. when we search on net for information about any Indian plant species.We hardly find any inf. on search in our *"......national networks like DBT’s India Biodiversity Information Network (IBIN) and NBA’s India Biodiversity Information System (IBIS)."* as talked about in the report. Further if the dreams of its '*Approach' "......Finally, the culmination of evolution of artifacts to the present day Information and Communication Technology has brought us to the threshold of a tenth major transition: x] Language based human societies –to- Human societies with global access to the entire stock of human knowledge, and engaged in an endeavour of collaborative knowledge generation."* are to be fulfilled in this e-age, it has to speak loudly about increasing participation & expertise in on-line community activities like those of 'Indiantreepix' google e-group, regarding which it is totally silent. Here information is shared on real time basis for the benefit of all stakeholders, minimising delays & fastening processes, following multi-disciplinary approach with membership from diverse background. This should also help in the process of constant learning in ones' career & creating passionate scientists/ taxonomists aided/ guided by other willing scientists/ taxonomists. This should also help in *"Capacity building: scientists" & "Capacity building: district level scientific community and barefoot taxonomists under "7)Human Resources" * 2009/9/20 JANAKI TURAGA <[email protected]> > Dear Aparna, > For a majority of people: it is the question of access. From where does one > have access to all these monographs, of which many of us are not even aware > of? > Unless someone lists all the monographs and other related works and puts > them up for access on the internet which is accessible to all the people in > the group. > In absence of accessible knowledge, the key source of information are the > fieldguides which are accessible in the lay public domain. > And some internet sites which are maintained by people who are deeply > interested in the areas. > Interest groups like this group rely mainly on fieldguides, some good > internet sites and very importantly-peers who have built their interest to a > very high level and some professionals/subject specialists who sustain the > group. I have learnt a lot from the peers in all the groups that I am a > member of. > We all would like to take things ahead, but we should have the awareness of > and access to these resource. > The issue is that of access and knowledge of the monographs etc. > If some of the subject specialists in this group who do have access to > these resources, can make them available to the rest of the group, then I > feel a majority of people will benefit. > Janaki Turaga > > > On 9/19/09, Aparna Watve <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> Dear All, >> Considering all the serious discussions going on so far on various >> identities, use of family names, I am so happy to realize how this >> group is slowly maturing. People are discussing technical terms, use >> of correct family names, below species ranks and nomenclature- things >> which only the trained plant taxonomists bothered with. >> Owing to this I feel the need to talk about more use of standard >> floras and monographs which i had talked of in the past. Relying only >> on handbooks, which are generally region specific and can have only a >> limited number of species and descriptions as compared to our vast >> diversity of flora, is good for beginners. But at this stage, the >> serious ones on this group - and there are many- should devote time to >> library and referencing work- not from a single book (as it is not >> possible) but from various standard references and then form their >> opinion on identity of a species. In many cases the taxonomic >> literature is also influenced by varied opinions of the taxonomists >> and it is actually fun to read how some plant species have baffled >> generations of plantwatchers. >> : ) >> Aparna >> >> >> -- >> Dr. Aparna Watve >> >> Asha Appt, Shanti Nagar, Ekata Colony >> Nr. BSNL tower, Akbar Ward, >> Seoni.480661 >> tel: 07692-228115 >> mobile: (0)9755667710 and 9822597288 still works >> >> >> -- With regards, J.M.Garg ([email protected]) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Jmgarg1 'Creating awareness of Indian Flora & Fauna' Image Resource of thousands of my images of Birds, Butterflies, Flora etc. (arranged alphabetically & place-wise): http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:J.M.Garg For learning about Indian Flora, visit/ join Google e-group- Indiantreepix: http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "indiantreepix" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.co.in/group/indiantreepix?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
