In India, open access to biodiversity information and the application of informatics in digitally liberated biodiversity information is still in its nascent stages. A comprehensive list that aggregates all the species known to occur in India is not available even from the organizations that are mandated to survey the flora and fauna of the country.  The India Biodiversity Portal (IBP) is an attempt based in civil society that seeks to addresses biodiversity information needs of India. The availability of a species name list organized along a consensus taxonomic classification is crucial to the portal's ability to aggregate and serve information.

In the absence of a dependable species list, IBP has attempted to aggregate the names of Indian species from local and global databases. Over 50,000 species names were aggregated in its initial phase and species descriptions and observation information was pegged to these. However, this approach introduced several issues in aggregating and organizing information. Issues were primarily due to these names being defined under varying taxonomic classifications or not having enough attributes to be placed in a unifying classification structure. This was compounded by the lack of a name resolution service for the portal.

We have currently built a participatory taxon name resolution interface, which utilizes the Catalogue of Life’s (CoL) integrated species checklist and taxonomic hierarchy as its primary reference to resolve all incoming names to the portal. This facilitates all names to be assigned with a status, rank and an integrating taxonomic hierarchy. Unresolved names are acted upon by a community of taxon experts and assigned attributes so that they integrate into the above structure of the name list. The interface provides mechanisms to query several global biodiversity databases in addition to CoL. Taxon curators are then able to verify each name and move it to a “clean list” that will serve as a comprehensive, validated species name list for India. We share some of the strategies adopted, experiences and issues encountered in building this participatory name resolution interface to create species lists for India.