This website collects and compiles natural history data that are voluntarily contributed by registered and authenticated users, who are requested to contribute images and associated data on Indian biodiversity through the data submission form as per the guidelines provided here. Additional textual data and observations may be submitted through the iBiodiversity Count mobile app or through an email to the editors. All the image and textual/number data contributed through the image submission forms of the websites under the Biodiversity Atlas - India platform (including this website) are displayed on these natural history websites as a free, public-goods scientific resource for nature educational, outreach, scientific and nature/biodiversity conservation purposes. Data logged through the iBiodiversity Count mobile app are not displayed on the websites, and are not accessible to anyone outside of the admins of the websites and mobile apps. Similarly, images submitted through the iButterfly Explorer mobile app for the purpose of AI-based identification are not captured and stored within the mobile app and/or the websites or anywhere externally; i.e., only the individual users who submit those images for identification purposes have access to them on their personal devices.
The use of mobile apps and creation of individual profiles required for contributing to the website and using the mobile apps require that registering users submit personal information such as one email address, one mobile phone number, at least the year of birth, and at least one social media handle, during the registration process. The registered user name, email address and/or mobile number are required to reset passwords or provide support if users face any issues. Individual information (such as year of birth and city of residence) is requested only to understand the overall profile of our users so that we can improve our platform for the users and to provide summaries of user profiles for our internal reports. A social media handle is requested to be able to know the individual identity of our contributors. The email address, mobile phone number and social media handle may also be used to contact the contributors if editors have any questions about the website submissions. This personal information gathered also helps ensure the safety of this platform, by ensuring that persons registering are real individuals with a genuine interest in natural history and in contributing to this community resource, and that the natural history data contributed by them will be honest and reliable. This information is not sold to anyone under any circumstances or otherwise shared with anyone with a possibility of commercial use. The only circumstance under which we might share your personal email address and/or phone number with an external agency is specifically if a publisher or their agent, or an author, of a potential publication wishes to use specific image(s) available on the websites/apps for which they wish to obtain an explicit prior permission from the specific contributing photographer(s). Under this circumstances, we might share the email address and/or mobile phone number only to facilitate the communication between the publisher/agent/author and the contributing photographer. The creators and copyright holders of the website/app platforms do not ask for a commission or fees for putting the publishers/agents and contributing photographers in touch, this is done purely as a courtesy.
If an individual contributor wishes at some point to cancel their account and delete their personal information (email address, mobile phone number, social media handle and other personal information associated with the user account), then they can do so by writing an email to the editors of the website or to the Indian Foundation for Butterflies Trust, or by calling the trust on the phone (+91 6362-512-292). The editors and/or the Trust can delete your account from the backend of the websites, at which point all your personal information will be deleted from the system and you or the admins will not be able to access your personal information afterwards.
The websites and the underlying data are stored on servers in non-profit, non-commercial research institutions and/or non-profit, non-commercial non-governmental organisations (NGOs) within India. The website/app platforms do not receive any foreign funding.
Copyright of the images submitted to this website remains with contributing photographers. Contributed images and associated individual data observations are not shared outside of the citizen science platform and individual websites without the knowledge and consent of the individual contributors. However, the datasets of the combined observations compiled through this web platform and associated mobile apps may be used for scientific research and publications by scientists and naturalists, and shared with various government agencies such as state forest departments, without the need of individual consents. Individual contributions are accepted, and this citizen science platform and its associated mobile apps are made freely available to all, on the explicit understanding that the compiled datasets are under the explicit and formal stewardship of the BioAtlasIndia consortium (under the non-profit Indian Foundation for Butterflies Trust), and may be used for scientific purposes (such as data analysis and writing of scientific research papers), shared with government agencies such as state forest departments and various Ministries for the purpose of biodiversity, wildlife and nature conservation, or used for non-profit outreach and educational publications (posters, brochures, books, mobile apps, etc.), at the discretion of the editors and partnering institutions that spearhead this citizen science platform and associated projects.
When compiled data are used for the above purposes, maximum effort will be made to acknowledge the contributors either as individuals or as a citizen science platform consortium members, wherever possible. However, contributors should understand, before making their contributions, that it may sometimes not be possible to mention photo credits or consult individually with every contributor before using the compiled data and/or sometimes individual images for non-profit, non-commercial scientific, outreach, educational and conservation purposes. While we sincerely make our best efforts to protect your photo copyright and credits, it should be clearly understood that data and images are contributed as a greater good towards these goals, with the trust that we are all working on a voluntary, non-commercial basis, without prejudice and self-interest, towards the greater good of the environment, ecology, biodiversity, nature conservation, education, and a healthy advancement of human society. Website editors and partnering institutions also support and serve this platform and individual websites/mobile apps to serve this greater societal good, without monetary compensation.
Contributors of individual data observations agree to voluntarily contribute individual data observations and images on these conditions. It is also explicitly understood when contributing and receiving the individual data observations that the Indian Foundation for Butterflies Trust, which holds copyright for this citizen science platform and its associated websites and mobile apps, is at liberty to use the combined, compiled datasets on a non-commercial basis for societal good, under the conditions and understandings as described above.