The 'Checklist' section on India Biodiversity Portal has a compilation of checklists of species belonging to a wide range of taxa and covering varied geographies of the Indian sub-continent. This section of India Biodiversity Portal is intended to be helpful to researchers, conservationists, students, naturalists and wildlife enthusiasts, among others.

Source: All checklists uploaded on the India Biodiversity Portal are sourced from a wide range of open access sites. The original authors of each checklist are cited in 'Attribution'; and the URL from which the checklist was procured is included under 'Source'.

The India Biodiversity Portal team thus takes no responsibility for the authenticity of the details of any of the checklists, except ones that are attributed to it. The only changes that we make in a checklist are corrections of spelling mistakes, including some additional columns like that for order and class in some cases, or removing certain columns like a detailed description of the medicinal properties of plants in a checklist. We also try to identify and remove repetitive entries.

Features: Every checklist on the IBP has a compulsory column with scientific names of the species within a given taxa. For example, a checklist of birds would always have a column listing the scientific names of the birds in a certain region. Other details about a particular taxa, like common or vernacular names, endemicity, threatened status, migratory data or field details may or may not be included depending upon the information provided in the source of the checklist.

Metadata: In addition to details of authorship, the metadata of each checklist on the IBP includes compulsory fields like Taxa - for eg: Aves, Reptilia, Plantae etc; and Place Name - for eg: Kanha National Park, Western Ghats etc. Depending on the information in the original source of the checklist, other details of Geography like State, District and Taluk or Bio-geographical zones may be included. If the authors of the checklist have defined these parameters in a certain way, their definitions are included in details of Geography with minimal modification. For example, a checklist on birds of South India may be defined by the author as a checklist that includes Goa in it, and this is reflected as such in the metadata form. If no such details are provided, the India Biodiversity Portal team includes details using standard definitions, and/or their own discretion.

If details of the duration of a study that led to the compilation of a checklist are provided, these are included in the metadata associated with it. In cases, where this kind of data is absent, any details like when the checklist was published or last updated, if available in the original source, may be provided. In a field titled Checklist Details, additional information like a description of the nature of the study leading to compilation of the checklist, a key used to provide certain details in a checklist, or checklist statistics are provided, wherever available. Each checklist also has a reference section which lists both URL's and textual links to sources that may aid in understanding or appreciating the importance of that particular checklist.

Species Taxonomy: We are working towards building a database listing all the species found in India. This is a gradual process and currently, we have only managed to build a preliminary database for all species of Indian Birds, Butterflies, Fish and Plants.

We have populated this database with information on as many credible, global resources on taxonomy as possible. The number and nature of these resources vary depending on the taxa and the kind of information available on the Internet. For example, for birds, we have taxonomies and links for each species from the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), Bird Life International and IUCN, Wikipedia, Global Biodiversity Information Network (GBIF), Encyclopaedia of Life (EOL) etc. In addition, we have tried to list common names for each bird species from a variety of sources including Sibley and Monroe (1996), Howard and Moore 3rd edition (corrigenda 8), CLEMENTS 5th edition (updated 2005), CLEMENTS 6th edition (updated 2009), IOC World Bird Names (2009), e-BIRD 1.05 2010, Oriental Bird Club (OBC) 2001 etc. On the other hand, for butterflies, we only have taxonomic details from Wikipedia and Markku savelas butterfly taxonomy website. To help amateurs recognize a particular species, we have also linked our databases of these four taxa with open-access photos of each species on Flickr, if any.

Thus, in a checklist that includes any of these taxa, scientific names that are recognized to be present in our database get highlighted as URL's. You can access details of everything we have on that particular species within our database by clicking on these URL's.

Search: At present, there are two ways of searching for checklists on the IBP. One, in which you can look for checklists containing a certain species by using the scientific name of that species in the Species Search. The other, in which you can use any search term like plants or Karnataka and obtain checklists that contain these words either in their title or metadata.

Download Formats: All checklists can either be downloaded in analysis/modification friendly CSV or printer friendly PDF formats.

Terms of sharing: All checklists on the IBP are shared using the Creative Commons (CC) License. Terms of sharing are defined by the authors of the source from which the checklist is taken. In the absence of any terms, checklists are shared using our default option of CC-by, which means that in case used, all you need to do is provide credit to the original source. For more details on the different kinds of CC licenses, please check the CC site.

How you can help: The next time you visit a wildlife sanctuary, take a walk in a park, or go for a birding trip, check this section on the India Biodiversity Portal for checklists that you can carry with you on these trips. If they are of help to you, and help increase your appreciation of the biodiversity of even a lake or park in your locality, these checklists would have served their purpose. We also hope that they inspire you to make checklists of your own and share them openly using one of the CC licenses.

You can also help by writing to give us your feedback on the format and the type of checklists that are of interest to you, or of a mistake in any of the checklists on our site that you may have used, or, to share a source of a checklist with us that we may have missed.