Indian Biodiversity Information System (IBIS) is a series of web-based, modular and searchable biodiversity portals, designed to bring together comprehensive information available on Indian flora and fauna in a readily accessible, free and user-friendly format on a common platform. IBIS is modelled on the concept of ‘citizen science’ – aspiring to facilitate the participation of amateurs in the gathering of scientific data and building a free resource on Indian biodiversity. It foresees the involvement of various groups of stakeholders ranging from amateur naturalists to wildlife enthusiasts, to serious researchers, ecologists, wildlife scientists and photographers in this pioneering venture. Currently IBIS hosts portals on avian and mammalian species from the Indian region.
Great Indian Bustard (Ardeotis nigriceps)
Critically Endangered by hunting and loss of its habitat, today perhaps as few as 250 individuals survive and the species is on the brink of extinction.Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica)
The Asiatic lions once ranged from the Mediterranean to the northeastern parts of the Indian subcontinent, but excessive hunting, water pollution, and decline in natural prey reduced their habitat, Now only place in the wild where this species is found is in the Gir National Park of Gujarat, India.Forest Owlet (Athene blewitti)
Endemic to central India. Until its rediscovery in 1997, it was thought to be Extinct. It has a tiny, severely fragmented population, known from fewer than 12 recent locations.Indian Desert Jird (Meriones hurrianae)
Rodentia is a largest order of mammals in the world which includes squirrels, rats, mice, voles, gerbils, hamsters, dormices, porcupines etc. Approximately 103 species found in India.Bristled Grassbird (Chaetornis striata)
Bristled Grassbird is endemic to the Indian subcontinent, where it is patchily and locally distributed in India, Pakistan, and Nepal. This grassland specialist has a small, rapidly declining population owing to the loss and degradation of its grassland habitat, primarily through drainage and conversion to agriculture.
Visit AVIS - IBIS Portal
The Avian Information System (AVIS) is the first in the series of web-based portals under IBIS, for sharing and bringing together the plethora of information available on Indian birds, on a common platform. Launched in December 2010, it is the first step towards creating a vast and a free resource base on the country's biodiversity. AVIS-IBIS aims at encouraging studies on the natural history and ecology, gather population and distributional data in a centralized database, and spread awareness about conservation of the avian species. AVIS comprises of species level information on approximately 1,331 bird species belonging to various regions of India. It is designed for a wide range of stakeholder groups, ranging from amateur wildlife enthusiasts to serious researchers.
Visit IBIS - Mammals Portal
IBIS-Mammals is the latest in a series of web portals envisaged under IBIS. It is a web-based information system comprising scientific species-level information on approximately 423 species of Indian mammals.
A user-friendly system, IBIS-Mammals provides the status, distribution, habitat and all other mammal related information on a single platform, aiding species conservation and promoting public participatory data sharing for conservation. It is also an excellent online resource for biodiversity education and awareness. The portal has 75,000+ museum records of mammals in India, supplemented by Geographical Information System (GIS) maps of all museum records as geo-spatial layers, overlayed on the Distribution Maps.