SnakeHub App – Know your snakes, Kerala!
The initiative hopes to educate the people of Kerala about local snakes in both English and Malayalam languages.
SnakeHub is an initiative to educate the people of Kerala about local snakes, in both English and Malayalam languages. SnakeHub has been developed by a team of biologists and app developers at Indriyam Biologics Pvt. Ltd. in an attempt to establish a free education platform about the snakes of Kerala. The app aims to provide a user-friendly and resourceful platform to a wide-ranging audience. The team is also working on a website under the same title, which will have the same database and features.
SnakeHub is the first app on snakes which covers all existing snakes of its target region. Apart from the detailed description of 114 species, it provides detailed information about basic biology, scientific identification, list of hospitals etc. to provide users with the most updated and advanced knowledge about snakes in the region.
Although today it targets the audience of Kerala, it is still a useful app for the rest of the country. Most of the common species found in Kerala are also widely distributed in other regions of India.
"Our goal is to expand the scope of this app for the rest of the country with multiple frontline regional languages so that our work reaches the maximum number of audience in rural and remote areas," explains Vivek R Sharma of Team SnakeHub.
"Our team is committed to providing free education, and we are open to working with regional groups to understand snake-related problems in local areas," he added.
On 25th September 2020, the SnakeHub app was officially presented and inaugurated by Chief Wildlife Warden of Kerala Forest Department, Mr Surendrakumar (IFS). The logo reveal was done by Mr S. Balram, Scientist-G, CEO of SCTIMST-TIMed.
Cover photograph of a Malabar Pit Viper by Radha Rangarajan