A first of its kind in India, this mobile application, called eForestrails, offers cellphone nature tours for the bamboo hut trail, upper Kanheri trail and avenue trees trail.
In what's good news for nature lovers, Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP) is offering them an option to explore three of its popular nature trails using a smartphone-based application.
A first of its kind in India, this mobile application, called eForestrails, offers cellphone nature tours for the bamboo hut trail, upper Kanheri trail and avenue trees trail. The app, due to be launched on April 17 at SGNP, has been developed by social enterprise Ladybird Environmental Consulting, with financial assistance from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Environmental Improvement Society.
"eForestrails will empower visitors with knowledge about the trails, for which they had to earlier depend on an expert or a guide. This free Android app acts as the perfect virtual guide," says Dr V Shubhalaxmi, founder and CEO of Ladybird Environmental Consulting.
"We have named this virtual guide 'Jungle Guru' and using this, even someone who is not an environment expert can now conduct a trail. In fact, we feel that this will be very useful for teachers to teach children about biodiversity. The guide allows the visitor to explore the trails at their own pace, convenience and company," she adds.
Each trail has 20 specific marked points of interest, which vary from plants, water bodies and other natural elements related to biodiversity, and about which the app will provide information. The app will use text, pictures and even audio commentary to educate the user. For any given plant, the app will provide information on its common name, scientific name, uses, leaves, flowers and interesting facts regarding it. Users can also learn about wildlife with respect to the plants in the area through a special feature called plant-animal association.
To make this possible, all the three trails have been geo-tagged, and each 'point of interest' has been assigned specific numbers that will be physically displayed on boards installed on the trail. "For instance, if a particular plant has been assigned a particular number, the same will be present on the map visible on the application. Choosing that number will help the visitors access information on that point of interest," Shubhalaxmi said.
The app does not require mobile network to function.
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