Grants:Project/Rapid/Atudu/Wiki Loves Butterfly in North-East India (WLB-NEI)/Report

Report accepted

This report for a Rapid Grant approved in FY 2017-18 has been reviewed and accepted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

• To read the approved grant submission describing the plan for this project, please visit Grants:Project/Rapid/Atudu/Wiki Loves Butterfly in North-East India (WLB-NEI).
• You may still comment on this report on its discussion page, or visit the discussion page to read the discussion about this report.
• You are welcome to Email rapidgrants at wikimedia dot org at any time if you have questions or concerns about this report.

Goals

Did you meet your goals? Are you happy with how the project went?

With high enthusiastic bent and total focused up work-ability, we are happily announcing our satisfaction in meeting the chief project goals of the third phase of WLB project namely WLB-NEI. North-East India forest areas (our butterfly hotspots) are largely characterised by extreme remoteness, problematic accessibility, Inner Line Permits, hazardous transportation and communication and above everything the perpetual inclement climatic condition with incessant spell of rain. Hence, subsequently, this phase of the WLB project covering different states of North East India was too challenging for us; and we took the challenge with all dedication, level best effort and solid teamwork in contributing a good number of quality photo documentation in Wikimedia Commons (along with many pictures in Valued & Quality image category), documenting many rare and very rare species and subspecies of butterflies (some of Which are also protected in India under Wildlife Protection Act, 1972) and many good article creation and development in Bengali in Wikipedia. In course of our North East India coverage, we are not only covering state or province wise, but covering district wise also with a view to pursuing more vivid and detailed documentation. Specially to mention in this context that in our grant application, we proposed that besides our butterfly documentation in North East India, we will simultaneously carry on progressing and developing the documentation of butterflies of West Bengal which we did in the first two phases of this said project. Subsequently, in this third phase of WLB project, we have significantly and parallely developed and progressed documentation in different districts of West Bengal also (When we are unable to access the north east region)

WLB pakke poster

• Our blockbuster event of this third phase was our co-organizing The 5th North East Butterfly Meet, 2018 along with Department of Environment & Forest, Govt. of Arunachal Pradesh at Pakke Tiger Reserve Forest in Arunachl Pradesh,India.[[1]]

WLB team with the Group of Lepidopterists and Resource Persons at Rani-Garbhanga Reserve Forest, Assam

• In course of our vivid documentation of available butterflies of North East India in species and subspecies level, we have also ventured to categorize them marking with their up to date status according to the Schedule of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972).

• Our WLB Project always retain a strong urge for multilingual approach to the project by way of translating our created articles and Image descriptions into different languages. To this effect, we have already communicated with Wiki editors of different language communities globally through our cordial invitations in the mailing list translators-l-owner@lists.wikimedia.org to do the same and work hand in hand to highlight the great spirit of Wikimedia movement. In this phase of WLB project (WLB NEI), we have translations of Image descriptions in Bengali (home wiki language), Assamese (one North East India language) and Hindi (Indic language) which have given the project a bit multilingual touch.

• On March 30th & 31st, 2019, the Wiki Loves Butterfly team members met and field-worked with a group of Lepidopterists & Resource persons on butterfly assembling at Rani-Garvanga Forest, Guahati, Assam, India. We had discussions with them about WLB Project and Wikimedia Movement. During our next probable meeting, we hope to motivate and inspire them more and more with the target of bring them under the purview of Outreach program and to come in the ways and means of Wikimedia movement[[2]].

Outcome

Please report on your original project targets.

As per our project goals:

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
Edit-a-thon	Not done	extreme remoteness, language problem, strict permission management problem, just newly exposed in those remote, too poorly cyber linked forest zones.
Photowalk locally	Not done	hectic field-work schedule covering extensively distant hotspots in 5 provinces, strict permission management problem
Articles created or improved	Done	significant articulation done due to proper task allocation, detailed and minute field study and dedicated efforts of all team members.
Photos uploaded to Wikimedia Commons	Done	significant contribution due to high enthusiasm, vastly extensive area coverage and painstaking labour of the field-workers

Global Metrics and Other Metrics

Please report on your original project targets.

Target outcome	Achieved outcome	Explanation
Uploading 500 images to Wikimedia Commons	451 images are captured from North-East india Total number of Images uploaded are 1268 Number of new images/media added to Wikimedia article pages are 715(56.39%) 120 valued images 80 quality images 1 image of species protected under Schedule I of WPA, 1972 (India) 28 images of species protected under Schedule II of WPA, 1972 (India) 6 images of species protected under Schedule IV of WPA, 1972 (India) List of Butterflies of Arunachal Pradesh, India (Total Species Number 91) List of Butterflies of Assam, India (Total Species Number 19) List of Butterflies of Sikkim, India (Total Species Number 89) List of Butterflies of West Bengal, India (Total Species Number 248) Total Number of Species Documented are 345 Total Number of Subspecies Documented are 323	significant contribution due to high enthusiasm, vastly extensive area coverage and painstaking labour of the field-workers.
Over 100 articles to be created and developed	100 articles in this phase (BnWP) Total number of articles are 206 (BnWP) No. of Good Article is 1 List of Articles of butterflies found in Arunachal Pradesh (in Bengali Language) List of Articles of butterflies found in Assam (in Bengali Language) List of Articles of butterflies found in Meghalaya (in Bengali Language) List of Articles of butterflies found in Sikkim (in Bengali Language) List of Articles of butterflies found in West Bengal (in Bengali Language)	significant articulation done due to proper task allocation, detailed n minute field study n dedicated efforts of all team members

Comparison between WLB Part-I, WLB Part-II and WLB NEI (Total number of images)

List of Butterfly distribution family-wise and state-wise

State Name	Papilionidae	Pieridae	Nymphalidae	Lycaenidae	Riodinidae	Hesperiidae	Total
Arunachal Pradesh	7	6	44	18	2	12	89
Assam	0	0	10	7	0	2	19
Meghalaya	0	3	3	0	0	0	6
Sikkim	6	4	43	11	3	22	91
Tripura	0	0	1	0	0	1	2
West Bengal	29	18	96	69	6	30	248

Total No of Species, captured in WLB project till April, 2019

• GLAM dashboard reports:[here] Volunteers contributing to documentation of these project [here]

Learning

Projects do not always go according to plan. Sharing what you learned can help you and others plan similar projects in the future. Help the movement learn from your experience by answering the following questions:

• What worked well?

Task Allocation : Nice and orientated task allocation among the team members has made it possible to look after different segments and sectors of WLB Project work maintaining a fine balance in photo uploading, article creation , technical settings , multilingual approach, outreach prospect,finance handling and so on .

Photographic Team Work: Existing Quality photographers and new wiki contributors coming through extensive outreach programme have worked well hand in hand covering diverse territories like mountain region, hilly terrain, forests, plains etc. The total photographic team has been divided into small teams comprising experienced photographers and new photographers to work out at different places in different seasonal diversities to ensure detailed coverage and on field studies. New contributing photographers are always guided, mentored, trained by experienced ones in each team to ensure better outcome and solid team work.

Wiki loves Butterfly in North East India 2018-2019

Outreach: The broad spectrum of outreach has been nicely worked out in this phase (WLB NEI) by way of inclusion of new wiki editors, co-ordination with new special interest groups, butterfly experts and resources persons, students and above all inviting and sharing other with and about the great motto of Wikimedia movement. Our co-organizing the 5th North East Butterfly Meet,2018 at Pakke Tiger Reserve in Arunachal Pradesh with participants and resource persons all over India and our presentation before them about WLB project and pros & cons of Wikimedia Movement have significantly served the outreach prospect.

Video upload: The WLB team has published a Video presentation about Wiki Loves Butterfly North East India project on 14 March 2019.

• What did not work so well?

Photo Walk and Edit-a-thon : As proposed, we could not arrange photo walk and edit-a-thon in the north east zone because of hectic schedule of field work covering distant area of 5 provinces of north east India, extreme remoteness, language problem, strict permission management problem and above everything in some/many of the forest and adjacent area there is electricity problem and as well as no internet connection or phone connection. We were just newly exposed in those remote, too poorly cyber linked forest zones of north-east India which sat heavily upon us; still next time we shall endeavour our level best to overcome those problems.

Multilingual approach: Time and again we have appealed to wiki editors of different language community globally through our cordial invitation in the mailing list translators-l-owner@lists.wikimedia.org to translate our articles, Image descriptions etc. in different languages. Yet no response is found in article translation till date. We do not know whether such non response is because of the fact that our articles are written in a regional language (Bengali) access to which is too difficult for others.

• What would you do differently next time?

Next time, we have planned to annex a new segment of Butterfly (Larval) Host Plants and Nectar Plants to the project which will definitely add a newer dimension and completeness to WLB-NEI project. Photos and brief scientific description of available Larval Host Plants and Nectar Plants shall be annexed. We have already communicated a Host and Nectar plant expert and brought him under the purview of outreach program.

We are trying our level best to communicate and hold meetings with the concerned forest authorities of North East India and others to procure the requisite permission to organize Photo walk and Editathon thereon. Next time we hope to overcome the above mentioned hindrances in materializing Photo walk and Edit-a-thon.

Finances

Grant funds spent

Please describe how much grant money you spent for approved expenses, and tell us what you spent it on.

Sl no.	Item description	Total INR	Total USD	Receipts
1	Train Fare (SL Class) Up and Down	12970	185.89	Y
2	Local Transportation	52760	758.33	Y
3	Permission for Entering the Reserve Forest and Guide Charges	13600	195.47	Y
4	Food and Accommodation	41494	596.40	Y
5	Miscellaneous			N
	Total	120824	1736.64	-

1 INR → 0.01433 USD

Remaining funds

Do you have any remaining grant funds?

The funds remaining from this grant in the amount of INR 8789 were deducted from another grant payment for Grants:Project/Rapid/Atudu/Wiki Loves Butterfly in North East India Part II (WLB-NEI-II).

Yes, we have some amount of grant funds remaining which amounts to INR 8789 (125.97 USD)

We would like to use the remaining fund in the next phase of our Wiki Loves Butterfly North East India (WLB NEI Part II) project.

Anything else

Anything else you want to share about your project?

As we have got satisfactory result in this phase of the WLB project (WLB-NEI), therefore we eagerly wish to continue this project. North East India remains an untouched vast area with almost little previous butterfly documentation done thereon. Hence, we have a great bent for documenting this vast zone in our detailed documentation style. In our next phase we wish to attempt to cover and document the remaining States/Provinces of North East India and soon we will submit the Grant Application for Wiki Loves Butterfly North East India Part-II after submitting the report.