Environment ministry launches biodiversity portal

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Environment Ministry on Tuesday launched a web portal to provide information about the vast biodiversity of the country.

The Indian Biodiversity Information System (IBIS) has been developed by the Foundation and Ecology Security, Gujarat.

To start with, all available data on birds of India has been collated and digitised under 'Avian Information System'.

In the coming months, IBIS will expand to build similar portals on mammals, reptiles, amphibians and flora.

The interactive portal uses open-source interface and will help the users to contribute data to the portal that would be periodically reviewed by experts.