Coimbatore: A new website, 'butterflyvision.in', has been created with the intent of making even the common man aware of the various kinds of butterflies in India.
Coimbatore: A new website, 'butterflyvision.in', has been created with the intent of making even the common man aware of the various kinds of butterflies in India.
The world around us is alive with birds and butterflies and we are sadly aware of only a handful of names of these creatures. Only those who are involved in the research of these creatures tend to remember the names of them.
In order to identify a beautiful butterfly that you recently spotted, the colour, patterns on the wings and other such details can be used to look it up on a book, the internet or the help of an expert can be sought. However, most of the information that is currently available online is about butterflies of foreign origin. Expert help cannot be sought often.
Enthusiasts who photograph various kinds of butterflies often find themselves without any help in identifying the names of the butterflies. For example the climate of the Western Ghats is conducive to the breeding of butterflies and there are approximately 350 species of butterflies here. However, it is not possible for the layman to remember or be aware of all the names. To help with this problem, Deivaprakasam Hari of CNS & TNBS has created the website, butterflyvision.in.
This website is a comprehensive compilation of not just the butterflies of the Western Ghats but also of butterflies of the other states of India.
Speaking about the website, he said, "I started photographing and learning about butterflies in 2012. To identify the butterflies and to know their names I used the book 'Butterflies of India' by Isaac David Kehimkar. While social media was not very popular in 2011-2012, Facebook was popular. To learn the names of some of the butterflies I sought the help of people on Facebook too. However, this too lasted only for a short while."
With the ongoing struggle to find out the names of butterflies, he decided to create a website that could prove useful for others like him. He then began to collect information and data regarding this. Since this website AI bases 95% of the data is accurate.
Further, he said, "This website has been created for the use of even a common man and is free. When the picture of a butterfly is uploaded on the website the common name and the scientific name of the butterfly can be obtained. The picture that is uploaded by the user is broken down into 50,000 pixels and the previously existing data regarding the colour and patterns are compared and the name of the butterfly is identified."
"An existing website that provides the details about the Indian butterflies is not so accurate. 'Butterfly Vision' does not just provide the details of the butterflies of the Western Ghats, but also the details of over 800 species of butterflies that live in other states. Butterfly researcher Lazarus N. Pamperis of Greece who has been researching regarding butterflies for the past 50 years has been impressed by this website. He has asked the makers of this website to create a website for The Butterflies of Greece, which consists of 235 species of butterflies. Working with him was a pleasure", stated Deivaprakasam Hari.
"Work is underway to create an app for Butterfly Vision. If this effort proves to be successful then the census of birds and butterflies will receive a great help. Even a common man must be aware of the birds and butterflies around him. Without them the environment would not exist", noted Deivaprakasam Hari.