CSIR-NEERI Biodiversity Portal

About this Portal

NEERI Biodiversity Portal (NBP) is a web based platform for sharing knowledge related to biodiversity of NEERI Campus. Centrally located CSIR-NEERI campus at Nagpur, Maharashtra has a huge urban forest with large number of beautiful and exquisite flowering and fruiting trees and a variety of shrubs, herbs, grasses and climbers. NEERI urban forest provides an excellent habitat for a variety of native and migrant birds, butterflies and mammals. Considering the global and national importance of biodiversity following the "the United Nations Decade on Biodiversity, with a view to contribute implementation of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity for the period 2011-2020" (Resolution 65/161) under Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Aichi Targets. The knowledge and awareness of biodiversity around us can act as the basis for halting and eventually reversing the loss of biodiversity of the planet. The prime objective of NEERI Biodiversity Portal is to encourage more people including Students, youth and others to develop a deep and multifaceted understanding of floral and faunal biodiversity of their surrounding. The portal enriches it's viewers, scientific community, researcher and children about the knowledge of their surrounding biodiversity. It describes and provides a detailed account about the floral and faunal components that is present in the campus since its inception or is added in last few years. The portal in it's maiden attempt tries to bring together the existing information about trees, birds and butterflies on one single platforms. This is for the people who are working in field already can better access to the information in it's most interactive way. Thought of having an indigenous NBP for the campus was conceived and initiated by Dr.Shalini Dhyani ,Scientist (EIRA Division) and Er.Poonam Prasad Scientist and Head (Knowledge Resource Center ). NBP is currently being managed, maintained and updated by a team of 4 admins (Shalini Dhyani, Poonam Prasad, Nihal Gujre and Puja S. Fulwadhani) based on regular inventories and observations in the campus.

CSIR-NEERI the leading environmental engineering research Institute of India is involved with many relevant national and international projects. NEERI was established in 1958 as Central Public Health Engineering Research Institute (CPHERI). The Ecological history encampases the rich and varied biodiversity that exists in campus.The total area covered by the NEERI is 48 ha. The campus lies in the heart of Nagpur city. The major tree species that are present in the campus are native to the area and many of them are exotic too. The native tree species have evolved and adapted over a very long period of time to the local climatic conditions, water availability, pest resistance etc. The biodiversity that exist in sustaining healthy, native ecosystems also provides a variety of ecosystem services. The trees in campus are of dry deciduous and mixed deciduous Nature. It is perceived that NBP will serve as an important database and a milestone in the field of Biodiversity and Environmental education. This will not only provide benefit to many ongoing researches in the campus but also will be first of a kind experiment to enhance local partnership in conserving urban biodiversity spots. The List of available flora and fauna will be updated and expanded along with a responsive user friendly android application and kids corner for interactive learning related to biodiversity. Portal will also be able to record your sightings and informations after some time so, that it is enriched and becomes a platform for biodiversity assessments.

Portal aims to provide open source data on NEERI, Nagpur campus biodiversity. It is designed to harness knowledge, enhance participation and establish a participatory platform. The Portal aims to facilitate and enable widespread participation of citizens in contributing and accessing information about NEERI campus biodiversity that benefits science and society, contribute to a sustainable prospect; for the development and use of this Portal. The portal is expected to be of interest to researchers, professionals, policy makers, educators, naturalists, hobbyists, students, as well as curious citizen. In due course we will have sufficient data, based on widespread participation, to provide information on the occurrence and distribution of all the plant and animal species present in NEERI, Nagpur campus. NBP is technically maintained by CSIR-NEERI, Nagpur.