Development of a roadmap for the promotion of ecological and environmental citizen science in India

This thesis aimed to develop a roadmap for promoting citizen science (CS) initiatives in India to address its socio-environmental challenges. This necessity arose to address the needs of growing environmental distress in the country and the exclusion of the public in the process of evidence-gathering & decision-making. CS as a process has exhibited the ability to track and contribute to developmental policies by engaging the public in scientific endeavours. Though CS has exhibited these abilities, its impacts and presence are mostly limited to developed countries. Even India, which has a rich history of participatory projects, has seen a limited presence of CS. This raises the question of why the process is not promoted to address the socio-environmental issues of the country; how impactful it has been; what restricts its growth; and who can facilitate its growth. With the knowledge from understanding these questions, I developed a roadmap that can accelerate its adoption over the next 5 years.
For this, I undertook a systematic review to identify CS projects in India that address socio-environmental issues. A total of 56 CS projects and their associated literature were identified which became the primary resources for the four investigations of this thesis through which I tried to understand: a) the characteristics of CS in India; b) their impact strength using a modified Citizen Science Impact Assessment Framework; c) their barriers & opportunities using a guiding framework; and d) the stakeholders involved using a stakeholder network analysis and interviews. The information from these assessments was used to develop the roadmap using two strategic planning tools which mapped the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of CS and its influence on Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, Legal and Ethical aspects. It provided a holistic understanding of strengths and drawbacks which helped to map ideas to overcome them.