An app that delivers help to injured birds

Even as bird lovers worry that the forest department's refusal to let bird rescue and treatment centres operate in residential areas would lead to more lives being lost, an application developed and improved by students of Ahmedabad University may help in saving birds' lives.

The app titled, Karuna Abhiyan, has over 1,000 volunteers registered with it. Anyone wishing to help an injured bird needs to download the app and just upload a picture of the same. "The app is designed in such a way that the moment a picture is downloaded, the name contact, locality along with a google map location of the injured bird will be sent to all volunteers," said Om Thakkar, one of app developers of the app.

He said, the moment a volunteer accepts the request, the request will be disabled for everyone else. "This means, two or more volunteers will not be rushing to help the same injured bird thus leading to a better use of resources," said Thakkar.

Thakkar developed the app along with his friends, Shivam Raval and Chintan Mehta. "The app is a work in progress and is an extension of a similar app we developed last year called, Save Lives. But that involved data of injured birds being uploaded via email that went to the forest department and the department uploading the information on a common WhatsApp group for volunteers," said Thakkar. He said the arrangement was not just cumbersome but also leading to inefficient use of resources as sometimes, two or more volunteers would reach the same place to help an injured bird.

Thakkar and his friends are now trying to promote the app on social media. "Although the app was presented to the CM following the inauguration of the government's initiative at Wildlife Care Centre, Bodakdev, we did not get much support by way of marketing of the app," said Thakkar.