Monsoon Beauty Awards and Recognition Update

Hello Friends

It has been nearly two weeks since the Monsoon Beauty event ended. You must be wondering what happened and why communications have been slow. Apologies for this delay.

The 53 days Journey (from 15th July 2021 to 5th September 2021) can only be described with one word Amazing.

The diversity of the 34000 odd observations is second only to the interest and participation of over a 1000 people (observers and identifiers combined). While it was an event located within the geographic boundaries of India we had friends joining in from all parts of the world. They added richness and expert education.

Some participants have communicated how much they have learned and how much more deeply engaged they have become with the natural world around them. Others have mentioned their positive interactions with other observers and with the so many great identifiers.

At the outset of the programme we had hoped for participation from 10 States or Territories (out of 36). However happily we received observations from 26 States or Union Territories. In some 10 regions we simply could not get people to join, this is a task for the next time.

We have had many new users join in and a significantly large proportion of women (26).

At the start of the event some people had questioned the “Gamefication” of the event through the incentive of awards. This was a risk, and truthfully we have had to deal with some concerns. A minority participated not to learn or contribute but to compete aggressively and their appreciation of nature and the community was secondary to self. They did not even attempt to engage with the community. Some users were indiscriminate and used bad processes in identification, while some observers got hyper competitive and may even have used unfair means to post many observations. In these cases we as event organizers have had to step in and attempt to address these concerns, sometimes we also got help from the iNaturalist Curator / Admin / Help group. For us as event organizers it is a learning we will take forward and incorporate in future events.

Over the next few days we will share some of the interesting outputs from the event, we will look into different taxonomic groups, special records. We will also try and profile some of the people. There have been quite a number of new records for either the country, or individual states, in some cases these observations are a 1st for the world as well. Rare organisms have been documented for the first time in the public domain or have been seen after intervals of over a 100 years.

Below is the list of awards. The awards are based not only on numbers but there has been an attempt to factor in some qualitative parameters as well. Below we have used the inaturalist user names for the participants.

We request all the 1st, 2nd and 3rd places in all of the categories to Direct Message their postal address to us or to send us an email on indiasnature01@gmail.com

We also request them to look at the Event page for the award guidelines and send in their selections as per the category

1 Category One - For Most Overall Observations

  1. First Place - @babloo_farswan with 4116 Observation (Using only a mobile smartphone)
  2. Second Place - @vivek_nature with 3131 Observations - (Using multiple DSLR cameras and smartphone)
  3. Third Place Joint - @navaneethsinigeorge with 1649 Observations (Using only a mobile smartphone)
  4. Third Place Joint - @hive with 1346 Observations (Using only a mobile smartphone)

@babloo_farswan is a very new user and worked very hard to not just document but also look at a diverse range of organisms some of which are first records for the State of Uttarakhand and a few of which are 1st records for India.

At the start of the programme @navaneethsinigeorge and @hive were very prolific and led the way for the rest of us. @hive, in particular, posted some fantastic and beautiful observations.

2 Category Two - Most Observations by a Rural Observer

  1. First Place - @rajkoranga with 2888 Observations - (Using only a mobile smartphone)
  2. Second Place - @kapil_chand with 789 Observations ((Using only a mobile smartphone)
  3. Third Place - @negi with 675 Observations (Bridge Camera and Mobile Phone)

@rajkoranga is also a fairly new user of iNaturalist. Using a mobile phone he too has documented an amazing array of high altitude flora and fauna. Some Butterfly observations posted by him are first records for the state since the British Collection Era, seen after an interval of over a 100 years.

3 Category Three -Most Observations in any one of the following states or Union Territories

(Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Tripura, Mizoram, Chandigarh, Nagaland, Manipur, Punjab)

The minimum Threshold was 150 observations. In only one of these States or Union Territories was there a maximum of only 7 observations posted. Hence this category of award is being scrapped and reallocated to Joint Awards in other Categories

4 Category Four - Most Observations by a New Observer

Most Observations by a new user who Joined after 1st July 2021 and / or has less than 200 observations at the start of the programme

  1. Joint First Place - @k_pawan with 1777 Observations - (Using only a mobile smartphone)
  2. Joint First Place - @ti_eramal with 639 Observations - (Using only a mobile smartphone)
  3. Second Place - @swapnendu_nayak with 789 Observations (Using only a mobile smartphone)
  4. Third Place - @nomadash with 476 Observations (Using only a mobile smartphone)

This is the most exciting category. New users who learned during the event and have been capturing and sharing an astounding diversity. @ti_eramal has shared vulnerable frogs and records of interesting plants and flowers.

5 Category Five - Most Identifications

Identifiers are the engine that run iNaturalist Events, without them we would neither be encouraged nor would be learn. During the course of the event 925 people have shared their valuable time and helped us identify many of our 34000 odd observations. We request every one to write to (Direct Message) identifiers and thank them specially for their hard work and effort.

  1. First Place - @muddytortoise with1269 identifications.
  2. Second Place - @haneesh with 889 identifications.
  3. Third Place (Joint) - @borisb with 862 identifications.
  4. Third Place (Joint) - @anubhav-agarwal with 851 identifications.

6 Category Six - Jury’s Award - New Women Observers

This award is being presented to new women users. One of the focus areas of this event was to encourage women observers and hopefully we are at the start of a longer and more supportive series of events and processes.

  1. First Place - @varsh1 with 572 observations
  2. Second Place - @saumya_singh with 337 observations.
  3. Third Place - @surabhi_srivastava_gaur with 309 observations.

We are happy to report that there are a fair number of new users. Also at last count there are atleast 26 women participants which is almost 3 times the iNaturalist India average.

7 Special Mention

Some participants were kind enough to share their observations for posting on Social Media. These are their observations

Hispa Beetle - Chosen as the iNaturalist Observsation of the day. Observer @saumya_singh
Green Fruit-piercing Moth - observer @ti_eramal
Common Birdwing Butterfly - observer @rajabandi
Pepper Plant - observer @rajabandi
Volucella Drone Flies & Kin - observer @babloo_farswan
Grasshopper - observer @babloo_farswan
Gaudy Grasshopper - Poekilocerus pictus - observer @jungli92
Typical Orbweaver Spider - observer @kapil_chand
Common Swallowtail Caterpillar - observer @kashif_ali
Common Redeye Butterfly - observer @navaneethsinigeorge
Giant Firefly - observer @krishna31
Thyas juno Moth - observer @aibor
The Vulnerable Indian Star Tortoise - observer @paulmathi
An endangered Tiger seen on or around International Tiger Day - observer @mirza8

8 Tables

8.1 Table 1 - Observers

A total of 103 people poster observations during the course of the project.
This table provides information about the observer, when they joined iNaturalist, and how many observations they had at the start of the programme.
Of the 103 participants 42 qualify (with 150 or more observations) for a Certificate of Participation. This would be sent to them soon.

This data is as on 5th September 2021 at 11:59 PM (23:59) IST

Rank User Observations Category 1 Overall Category 2 Rural Category 4 New User Category 6 Jury’s Award (New Women) Date of Joining Inat Observations before 15th July 2021
1 @babloo_farswan 4116 1st 28/Apr/21 182
2 @vivek_nature 3131 2nd 15/Sep/20 832
3 @rajkoranga 2888 1st 24/Dec/20 40
4 @k_pawan 1777 1st Jt 28/Feb/21 111
5 @navaneethsinigeorge 1649 3rd jt 25/Jul/20 4238
6 @hive 1321 3rd jt 18/Jul/19 2141
7 @rajabandi 1257 29/Oct/19 2512
8 @subbu107 1209 13/Jun/16 5373
9 @elavarasan_mm 1177 26/Apr/20 5266
10 @ram_k 1025 06/Jun/20 1844
11 @naeempamparambil 891 07/Sep/20 1142
12 @kapil_chand 789 2nd 11/Mar/21 1311
13 @negi 675 3rd 09/Jun/20 2920
14 @odonut 675 24/May/20 1092
15 @ti_eramal 639 1st Jt 18/Jul/21 1
16 @varsh1 572 1st 12/Jul/21 30
17 @vivekbgirija 541 10/Aug/20 1630
18 @swapnendu_nayak 531 2nd 26/Jul/21 0
19 @unnikrishnan_mp 514 09/Feb/19 856
20 @paulmathi 490 03/Apr/20 1946
21 @nomadash 476 3rd 05/Jun/20 51
22 @naturalist_aditya 386 04/Aug/20 1722
23 @jaya_rakesh 369 11/Dec/16 876
24 @balakrishnan07 343 12/Jan/20 762
25 @vijay_dixit 337 07/Jun/20 4277
26 @saumya_singh 337 2nd 16/Feb/21 28
27 @surabhi_srivastava_gaur 309 3rd 04/Oct/19 93
28 @aadyathammaiah 282 19/Jan/21 13
29 @nageshwaran_nageshwaran 270 03/Jul/21 29
30 @anubhav-agarwal 270 20/Sep/19 6348
31 @csbandi 257 01/Dec/19 1609
32 @subhalaxmi_muduli 246 05/Apr/21 42
33 @aibor 237 15/May/21 257
34 @swatiudayraj 208 25/Sep/19 1131
35 @azhagu 193 30/Sep/19 271
36 @hrishialpha 191 28/Apr/21 146
37 @swanand 186 23/Oct/17 3802
38 @kartiksundar 183 04/Mar/18 509
39 @ygurjar 180 22/Feb/15 17540
40 @virenvaz 174 02/Jul/21 11
41 @swati_sagarika_dakua 156 31/Jul/21 0
42 @kamleshatwal 156 10/Sep/20 1981
43 @ramanarayanan 141 04/Feb/20 613
44 @arvintrix 132 13/Jul/21 1
45 @krishna31 122 31/Aug/20 299
46 @r_priya 103 24/Aug/21 0
47 @himanshupandav 99 06/Dec/18 509
48 @chayantgonsalves 84 18/Jul/20 1079
49 @firos_ak 77 01/Oct/16 4319
50 @sagarika_chen 76 17/Apr/19 874
51 @prabhas 69 19/Jun/21 2
52 @paran_amitava 61 14/Apr/21 2
53 @jungli92 55 22/Jan/21 1
54 @mann97 55 04/Sep/20 66
55 @sangavi 55 17/Jun/20 465
56 @teratornis 52 31/Oct/19 616
57 @prakash_chand 52 29/Apr/21 490
58 @hari_mt 51 01/Jul/21 34
59 @svabhukohli 46 13/Mar/20 28
60 @umesh_rana 45 12/Jul/21 0
61 @shyamphartyal 43 27/Dec/17 369
62 @kashif_ali 43 11/May/21 92
63 @ashitha 43 08/Sep/20 407
64 @punurip 42 19/Jul/21 12
65 @bhupinder_singh_nagi 42 01/Jul/21 2
66 @kamal_bisht 42 09/Jun/20 665
67 @sarita_nayak 41 26/Jul/21 4
68 @mrigank_shekhar 40 16/Jun/21 34
69 @harish9 40 11/Jun/20 346
70 @reetu_farswan 37 16/Jul/21 1
71 @sanjaybisht 34 12/Jun/20 626
72 @sakshis 30 18/Jul/20 194
73 @madhukar_adepu 30 14/Jul/21 0
74 @puneet4 29 23/Mar/20 168
75 @nishie 28 12/Jul/21 0
76 @tarun_titgaien 28 26/Sep/20 722
77 @tanuja5 24 12/Jul/21 1
78 @triloksinghrana 22 29/Jun/20 40
79 @devika_mb 21 27/Jul/20 329
80 @megha_lifeofferings 19 10/Jul/21 2
81 @chithams1 19 06/Mar/21 39
82 @monicapillai 16 27/Jul/21 0
83 @lovejeet01 16 01/Apr/21 403
84 @savitri_joshi 16 07/Mar/21 387
85 @hopeland 16 09/Jul/16 4957
86 @rashubh 13 18/Jul/21 11
87 @garima11 8 05/Sep/21 0
88 @muddytortoise 8 29/Jul/19 235
89 @animal_hobby 7 27/Mar/19 214
90 @finding_nimo_ 6 21/Aug/21 14
91 @scientific_alan 6 26/Nov/20 74
92 @bacchidangwal 6 10/Jun/20 286
93 @pratheek 6 12/May/18 37
94 @ryan_satish 5 07/May/21 12
95 @rohit_nandakumar 4 26/Jan/21 49
96 @mirza8 4 12/Jul/21 0
97 @aastha1 3 13/Jul/21 0
98 @deepak_aggarwal 3 31/May/21 5
99 @vishalkumarprasad 3 10/Sep/20 1
100 @parveez 2 02/Aug/21 7
101 @kelly_india 2 15/Jul/21 0
102 @emforests 2 26/Jan/21 5
103 @mountainjen 1 08/Jun/20 0

8.2 Table 2- Top 20 Identifiers

Twenty people who identified 300 or more observations are being awarded a Certificate of Appreciation for their efforts in helping the observers with species / genus or family identifications. Only our limited resources prevent us from honouring the identifiers in greater depth.

Rank Identifiers Name Identifications Rank
1 @muddytortoise 1269 1st
2 @ram_k 975 **
3 @haneesh 889 2nd
4 @borisb 862 3rd Jt
5 @anubhav-agarwal 851 3rd Jt
6 @amila_sumanapala 778
7 @odonut 755
8 @hrishialpha 703
9 @subirshakya 665
10 @zebs 639
11 @elavarasan_mm 619
12 @azhagu 616
13 @pierotoni10 594
14 @abhijatshakya 544
15 @firos_ak 493
16 @unnikrishnan_mp 482
17 @pihlaviita 452
18 @naturalist_aditya 340
19 @nagabhushanjyothi 329

ram_K as an organizer of the event is not eligible for any award

8.3 Table 3 - Observations & Observers by States or Union Territory

Rank State or Union Territory Observations in the Event Observers Observations as on 1st June 2021
1 Uttarakhand 12722 34 41975
2 Kerala 4475 9 86583
3 Tamil Nadu 3294 14 50332
4 Chhattisgarh 3131 1 25793
5 Karnataka 2270 14 79151
6 Odisha 1821 8 7842
7 Maharashtra 1381 11 106099
8 Andhra Pradesh 1190 2 16930
9 Telangana 1127 5 7337
10 Meghalaya 892 2 6787
11 Himachal Pradesh 830 2 7818
12 Madhya Pradesh 377 2 9997
13 Uttar Pradesh 308 4 6548
14 Jharkhand 214 1 2600
15 Bihar 210 2 1753
16 Goa 113 4 9763
17 Gujarat 57 2 21842
18 Assam 56 2 52684
19 Sikkim 44 1 3109
20 West Bengal 14 2 37362
21 Manipur 7 1 1242
22 Haryana 4 1 4264
23 Punjab 2 1 1322
24 Chandigarh 2 1 445
25 Rajasthan 1 1 13737
26 Delhi 1 1 4920
27 Arunachal Pradesh 0 0 10441
28 Jammu and Kashmir 0 0 3920
29 Andaman and Nicobar Islands 0 0 2659
30 Puducherry 0 0 2255
31 Ladakh 0 0 1992
32 Nagaland 0 0 908
33 Mizoram 0 0 444
34 Tripura 0 0 442
35 Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu 0 0 356
36 Lakshadweep 0 0 260
26

Do send in your comments, and queries either via direct message to @ram_k or post it in the comments below.

Publicado el septiembre 17, 2021 12:37 MAÑANA por ram_k ram_k

Comentarios

Great!! Congrats to all the winners here and all the participants too🥳🥳

Publicado por odonut hace más de 2 años

Awesome!! Congratulations to all winners!! great job..
nice initiative @ram_k

Publicado por swanand hace más de 2 años

@swanand Thank you - all of you made it happen and has made it a very enjoyable space.

Publicado por ram_k hace más de 2 años

Thank you @ram_k and team for this great initiative and the efforts! Congratulations to all the participants and winners - such fun and learning :)

Publicado por surabhi_srivastav... hace más de 2 años

Awesome. Such a Nice Initiative RAM.
Congrats to all winners.
Happy to be part of this team....

Publicado por kartiksundar hace más de 2 años

Congratulations to all the winners, i guess in my opinion all participants are winners in their own way. Thank you @ram_k for this wonderful opportunity.

Publicado por ti_lamare hace más de 2 años

@ti_eramal That is one of the big takeaways that so many of us have been able to get together from our locations and share our joys and learn from each other.

Publicado por ram_k hace más de 2 años

Wonderful effort @ram_k - congratulations to you and all the contributors to this event. Hope to see more soon

Publicado por chayantgonsalves hace más de 2 años

@chayantgonsalves Thank you too - for the so many great reptile id's and patiently responding to all the pestering :-)

we will be posting about the 5th walks too - will ask you for some info

Publicado por ram_k hace más de 2 años

@ram_k this was a wonderful start for me in terms of regulaly spending some time with nature and sharing observations with a highly inspiring set of naturalists. Thank you for getting me started, and sincere thanks to all identifiers who corroborated, corrected and/or improved on the ids. There's a long way to go, I can see.
I am honoured too on being awarded a prize, which probably rightfully belongs to @ti_eramal another newbie observer like me, with the highest number of observations - I see however that she's sharing the first prize jointly in another category, so I got lucky!
This is a great place to learn, share, and co-create so much useful information. Happy to be here, and looking forward to continued engagement.
A big shout-out and thanks to everyone who makes up this community! :)
My greatest inspiration have been two youngsters in particular @odonut and @teratornis I have learnt much from both! Must also mention @azhagu, @elavarasan_mm, @borisb, @anubhav-agarwal, @subirshakya and so many others who were very helpful with Id-ing and helping me learn :)
Varsha

Publicado por varsh1 hace más de 2 años

Thanks @ram_k for organising this great event and to good to see many new users. Congratulations to all the winners.

Publicado por navaneethsinigeorge hace más de 2 años

@varsh1 Thank you and happy to know that you have discovered this great place. And for the support you have provided as well.
In some time we will explore more creative events to keep people engaged and provide a space to contribute their interesting observations.

Publicado por ram_k hace más de 2 años

Congratulations to all participants and winners and of course @ram_k the organizer! Hope to see more events in the future.

Publicado por aibor hace más de 2 años

@aibor thank you too for being an active member with some fantastic observations.

Publicado por ram_k hace más de 2 años

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