Grants:PEG/Sujay25/Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal

statusFunded

Project & Event Grants

Sujay25/Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal

The main purpose of Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal is to increase the material related to Himalayan Range with a free license in Wikimedia Commons and improve the quality and increase the amount of articles about diversifying Garhwal Himalayan mountain range and other respective variety in different languages in Wikipedia. Also to raise awareness among various community chapters, motivate them to contribute to the Wikimedia projects and organize this kind of trekking expedition in future.

targetAll language editions of Wikipedia, Commons,Wikspecies, Wikivoyage and other WMF projects.

strategic priorityImproving Quality, Increasing Global Participation.

start date11 September

start year2015

end date11 February

end year2016

budget (local currency)INR 1,55,638.98

budget (USD)US$ 2333.00

grant typeindividual

non-profit statusNo

creator• Sujay25

contact(s)• 77sujaygmail.com• santanuc4@gmail.com

organization• Wikimedia India Chapter

friendly space expectations

view all PEG requests

Goal

Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal is a sub project under Wikipedia Treks Mountains.

This is a high-altitude trekking expedition from Gangotri to Badrinath in the Garhwal Himalayan region of India, which is to be organised by experienced mountaineers and trekkers of West Bengal, India in the month of September 2015. This 99 kilometer challenging trek route passes through more than ten Himalayan glaciers like Gangotri, Raktabaran, Chaturangi, Basuki, Sweta, Sita, Arwa, Bidum etc. and one of the most breathtaking mountain-scape under the shadow of great peaks of Garhwal like Mt. Bhagirathi I, II, III, Mt. Shivling, Mt. Vasuki, Mt. Chandraparvat, Mt. Meru, Mt. Kalindi, Avalanche Peak etc. Scree, hidden crevasses, rock-fall zones, avalanche-prone areas, whiteouts make this trek route extremely difficult to traverse. Kalindi Khal pass, the highest point of trek route, which is 19,510 feet or 5,948 metres above from sea-level, take a toll on the health of the trekkers, due to the high altitude and steep ascent.
The northern part of India harbours a great diversity of trees, shrubs and herbs found in three different climatic regions as tropical, sub-tropical and temperate. Which results the total Himalayan range as the land of gorgeous flowers and extraordinary animals.

Plan

Area:	Garhwal Himalayas
Duration:	23 Days
Altitude:	5968 mts /19578 ft
Grade:	Moderate to tough

Activities

DAY	DATE	PLACE	Detalis
DAY 1	11.09.15	Howrah to Haridwar	Train
DAY 2	12.09.15	Haridwar	Night stay at Haridwar
DAY 3	13.09.15	Haridwar to UttarKashi	by Bus/Jeep
DAY 4	14.09.15	Uttarkashi	Permission/ Inner Line Permit
DAY 5	15.09.15	Uttarkashi to Gangotri	by Jeep/Bus
DAY 6	16.09.15	Gangotri to Chirbasa	Trekking
DAY 7	17.09.15	Chirbasa to Bhujbas/Gaumukh	Trekking
DAY 8	18.09.15	Bhujbas/Gaumukh to Upper Nandanvan	Trekking
DAY 9	19.09.15	Upper Nandanvan to Vasukital	Trekking
DAY 10	20.09.15	Vasukital	Day off
DAY 11	21.09.15	Vasukital to Kharapatthar	Trekking
DAY 12	22.09.15	Kharapatthar to Suralaya	Trekking
DAY 13	23.09.15	Suralaya to Shweta Glacier	Trekking
DAY 14	24.09.15	Shweta Glacier to Kalindi Base Camp	Trekking
DAY 15	25.09.15	Kalindi Base Camp to Rajparav through Kalindi Khal(Pass)	Trekking
DAY 16	26.09.15	Rajparav to Arwa Camp	Trekking
DAY 17	27.09.15	Arwa Camp to Ghastoli Camp	Trekking
DAY 18	28.09.15	Ghastoli Camp to Mana Village/Badrinath	Trekking
DAY 19	29.09.15	Badrinath	Stay
DAY 20	30.09.15	Badrinath to Haridwar	Bus/Jeep; stay in Haridwar
DAY 21	01.10.15	Haridwar	Train to Howrah from Haridwar

Importance of Kalindi Khal (pass):

Gangotri is the main source of the Bhagirathi River, an important tributary of the Ganges. Other glaciers like Raktabaran, Chaturangi, Basuki, Sweta, Sita, Arwa, Bidum etc. are also the life line for Bhagirathi and Ganges, the main source of water in Northern as well as Eastern India. Due to global worming the glaciers are getting reduced gradually. Due to these rapid variations, the geographical features of the whole region are getting transformed constantly. The high-resolution images captured in the trekking expedition will help the volunteers for documentation purpose and enrichment of existing articles.
The overall purpose of Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal is to increase the material related to Himalayan Range with a free license in Wikimedia Commons and improve the quality and increase the amount of articles about diversifying Garhwal Himalayan mountain range and other respective variety in different languages in Wikipedia. Reaching out to the majority of Himalayan mountain range during this trekking program will not only raise awareness among various community chapters, but also motivate them to contribute to the Wikimedia projects and organize this kind of trekking expedition in future.

Impact

Increase reach

• Currently this project is focused on Global south region which will Improve editor diversity by recruiting new editors from this particular target group.
• Trekking or hiking is extremely well liked adventure sports through the globe and it will be enormously easier to find like-minded open source and free knowledge organizations and initiatives with whom we can collaborator with.
• This Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal will be the first major public activity of its kind and will be pivotal in the increased uptake of Wikimedia projects by the populace of the extreme lands in India.
• Global participation is the ultimate target of this project. We need to inspire global participation via partnerships and collaboration with institutions and other groups who align with our mission.

Increase participation

Higher impact potential

• This team of WTM comprises total nine members; among them three wikipedians and a female wikipedian volunteer is involved. We expect another three non wikipedian experienced trek member to be converted into volunteers.
• After the completion of trek, there will be three edit-a-thons, for new editors, where they will be educated with proper guidance, follow-up and mentorship.
• Non-wikipedian trek members will be motivated to contribute in commons and other projects.
• Outreach efforts by local Wikimedia chapters and community members will also accelerate the impact. The processes, tools, and policies that accomplish and systematize our effort also stimulate the quality of Wikipedia Treks Mountain.
• the project has a clear outreach component, with dedicated activities. We can share our experience, which will be presented in detail on-wiki, allowing others to learn.

Lower impact

• Increasing Wikimedia's participation in the remotest places (Mana Village, the last village of India) is one of the salient points of Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal. Garhwal Himalaya is crucial to this objective, as a key hub for the whole range of Himalaya. Since the Internet penetrations in these areas are low, the end results will be less satisfactory. Henceforth, the initial impact will increase awareness.

Increasing Quality

Higher impact potential

• Wikimedia Commons has an insignificant representation of mountains and peaks along with the species, flora and fauna in the complete Himalayan range. The available images are of moderate to acceptable quality. Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal aims to improve the coverage of the Himalayan range by encouraging people (including professional photographers) to take and donate quality images under free licenses to the Wikimedia Commons database.
• The expected ripple effect is that Wikipedia articles about these sites will be created and improved during global upload and edit-a-thons.

Lower impact potential

• There will be a stand-alone photo competition encouraging new editors to increase awareness

Encourage Innovation

• This Wikipedia Treks Mountain project is focused to take the wikipedians into the nature. All the Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal members are going to use it collaboratively to create and sustain as social innovation. We will create an environment that offers volunteers social space and technical resources to innovate, experiment and learn.
• Based on the outcome of this project, we can expand the projects into other adventure sports field like Wiki Treks jungle, Wiki treks coast and Wiki treks desert.
• The prizing strategies of the edit-a-thon will be encouraging to the participants.
• There will be a documentary for the whole project and this will be the first of it's kind in Global South and supports in doing outreach in an inventive method.
• There will be multiple brainstorming sessions during the trek as well as after the trek, where various ideas for Wikipedia Treks Mountain will progress.
• Like the projects as Wiki Loves Monuments, Wikipedia Treks Mountain will replicate (Wiki Loves Public Art, Wiki Loves Earth etc.) its earlier successes in developing editing communities that create valuable, high quality knowledge resources in languages they are literate in, to engage a growing readership in all parts of the world in the coming years.

Fit with strategy

• The project will provide missing quality images and/or other files from area, which aren't currently very well covered by volunteer work. This will increase the quality of all language editions of Wikipedia, Wikspecies, Wikivoyage and other WMF projects.
• Wikipedia Treks Mountain can easily provide large amount of freely licensed photographs of remote places that can be used by the Wikimedians to improve the quality of articles on specific Wikimedia projects. It can also stimulate the community to generate content about greater Himalayan range, alpine meadows, rare high altitude flora and fauna, the lifestyle of the mountain people, their settlement patterns, dress, dialect, Jewelry and others that were photographed during the trekking but were not represented with specific articles. Since Wikipedia Treks Mountain opens up opportunities to promote the Wikimedia community in the country and support active participation of its members, it can benefit to increase professionalization and effectiveness in the work done by the community members.

Financial sustainability

• Wikimedia foundation will feel more comfortable in awarding us medium to large-scale grants as a result of us building up a positive track record.
• We can approach other organizations (e.g. open street map) to support in this project for providing more accurate information for them on the basis of geo-tagging.
• We can approach the local government organizations to support for increasing awareness of Wikipedia

Measures of success

Community engagement and content integration plan

Number of outreach Activities

After the completion of the trek we are going organize a press conference where we can expect at least 5 journalists from different media to cover. After the press conference we will organize a slideshow event. Till February 2016 we are going to organize four workshops and edit-a-thons dedicated to mountaineering community.

Number of participants (new and active editors)

There will be at least 30 new editors.We are expecting at least 10 active user from this group.

Number of photos integrated in articles

At least 300 images will be integrated to the related articles.

Number of articles improved/created

There will be at least 100 new articles created and 50 existing articles to be improved.

Number of photos to be uploaded during the Photography Competition

At least 500 quality images will be uploaded to Commons as a part of Wikipedia treks Mountain Photo Contest.

No of images and media files to be uploaded by trek members

At least 2000 images and media files in Commons will be uploaded by the core trek members.

Resources and risks

Resources

Core Team

Name	Image	Wiki contribution	Training	Trekking Experience	Team Role
Dipankar Sen		Nil	Nehru Institute of Mountaineering - Basic Mountaineering Course	Leader and organiser of 60+ trekking and expedition	Team Leader
Mohan Singh		Nil	1) Nehru Institute of Mountaineering - Basic Mountaineering Course. (2014) 2) Nehru Institute of Mountaineering - Advanced Mountaineering Course. (2015)	Team member of 20+ trekking and expedition	Deputy Leader
Roop Singh		Nil		100+ trekking and expedition in almost every region of Himalayas	Guide and High Altitude Friend
Dibyendu Nandi		Nil	Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports-attended basic mountaineering course
Santanu Chandra		Commons	1) Himalaya's Beacon - Basic Rock Climbing Course 2) Youth Services Department, Govt of West Bengal - Orienteering Course (February, 2014)	1) Sandakphu Trek (February, 2012) 2) Singalila Trek (October, 2013) 3) Roop kund & Ronty Saddle Trekking Expedition (August, 2014)
Sujay Chandra		Bengali Wiktionary, Bengali Wikipedia, Commons	1) Himalaya's Beacon - Basic Rock Climbing Course	1) Sandakphu Trek (February, 2012) 2) Singalila Trek (October, 2013) 3) Roop kund & Ronty Saddle Trekking Expedition (August, 2014)
Ananya Mondal		Bengali Wikipedia, Commons	1)Rock Climbing Basic Course organised by Climbers’ Circle (December, 2011) 2) Rock Climbing Refresher Course organised by Climbers’ Circle (February, 2011) 3) Youth Services Department, Govt of West Bengal - Orienteering Course (February, 2014)	1) Sandakphu Trek (April, 2012) 2)Falut -Sandakphu Trek (October, 2012) 3)Upper Neora Valley Trek (April, 2014) 4) Gangotri- Nandanvan Trek (October, 2014)
Ashish Das		Nil	1) Himalaya's Beacon - Basic Rock Climbing Course	1) Sandakphu Trek (November, 2012) 2) Parangla Trek (August, 2013) 3) Roop kund & Ronty Saddle Trekking Expedition (August, 2014)
Prasenjit Dutta		Nil	1) Himalaya's Beacon - Basic Rock Climbing Course	1) Singalila Trek (October, 2013) 2) Roop kund & Ronty Saddle Trekking Expedition (August, 2014)
Abhishek Sutradhar		Nil	1) Himalaya's Beacon - Basic Rock Climbing Course (2014)	1)Dzongri- Goecha la (Highest Alt. 14500 ft)-2010 2)Tapovan- Neela Tal- Nandanvan-Vasuki tal (Highest Alt. 16000 ft.)-2011 3)Jawhar Valley-Pachhu Glacier (Highest Alt. 14000 ft)-2012 4)Bagini Glacier- Rishikund (Highest Alt. 17200 ft)-2013 5)Sundardunga Valley- Sukhram Cave- Kanakata Pass (Highest Alt. 17000 ft)-2014
Anupam Mondal		Nil		1)Dzongri- Goecha la (Highest Alt. 14500 ft)-2010 2)Tapovan- Neela Tal- Nandanvan-Vasuki tal (Highest Alt. 16000 ft.)-2011 3)Jawhar Valley-Pachhu Glacier (Highest Alt. 14000 ft)-2012 4)Bagini Glacier- Rishikund (Highest Alt. 17200 ft)-2013 5)Sundardunga Valley- Sukhram Cave- Kanakata Pass (Highest Alt. 17000 ft)-2014
Balwant Singh		Nil		100+ trekking and expedition in almost every region of Himalayas	Cook and High Altitude Friend

Special skills or qualifications this potential grantee or project lead brings to this project

• Our team consists of members from the trekking community who will bring expertise to the project.
• We have members who are professional trekkers and have an experience of moderate to tough treks.
• We have a good press service helping us get a good coverage in the national media.

Evidence of past success in executing similar projects

• We have strong track record of organizing photo walks. We have successfully completed Wikipedia takes Kolkata 2011,2012,2013 and 2014 getting over 2000 images uploaded.
• We have organized Wikipedia Photo contest for BNWIKI10 in December 2014
• We also stay in touch with several international WLM organizers who help us support WTM.
• We were involved in the successful execution of Wiki Loves Food in India in 2015.
• We have an experience of organizing various trekking programs in India, as a part of an organization.
• We have four good cameras (DSLR) and one video camera to be used during the Wikipedia Treks Kalindi Khal expedition.

Additional resources that will benefit the project and ensure its initial success

• The project lead has been involved in the successful execution of Wiki Loves Food in India in 2015.

Risks

We have identified the following risks:

• Bad weather: Though we have chosen the post monsoon session for this trekking, but the weather in the mountains is unpredictable. The bad weather can make the trek difficult and moreover, the quality of photographs will deteriorate. We have counted few extra days in the trek. We can wait for three to four days for the weather to get normalized.
• Acute mountain sickness (AMS):In this WTM project, as the maximum height gain will be 19,510 feet or 5,948 meters above from sea-level, there is a possibility of High altitude sickness. To minimize the chance of High altitude sickness we are going to ascend slowly. There will be effective Pre-acclimatization processes, which will be exercised from the beginning of the project. There will be particular medication system for this and we have arranged back up team to bring down the affected person(s) to Gangotri which is the nearest road head.

Budget

Project budget table

Sl. No.	Code	Particulars	Total (US$)	%
1	GCPC	Guide, Cook & Porter Charges	3841.41	57.9
2	FTD	Food in Trek Days	267.47	4
3	FANTD	Food and Accommodation in Non-trek Days	715.00	10.7
4	TR	Transportation	728.06	10.9
5	ERC	Equipment Rental Charges	183.98	2.8
6	INS	Insurance	77.34	1.2
7	MED	Medicine	85.94	1.3
8	PSVC	Permission for Still and Video Cameras	51.56	0.8
9	PRMG	Permission for Entering the Gangotri National Park	309.38	4.7
10	PS	Printing and Stationary	103.13	1.6
11	MED	Media	185	2.8
12	MIS	Miscellaneous	85.94	1.3
13	TOT	Total	6634.21	100

Total cost of project

US$ 6634.21

Total amount requested from the Project and Event Grants program

US$ 2333.00

Additional sources of revenue that may fund part of this project, and amounts funded

We have asked for 33.33% of the total project cost. Remaining 66.67% fund will be arranged by other sponsors and personal funding.

Non-financial requirements

• Permission to use Wikimedia's logos in the Banner
• Wikipedia T-shirt for distribution to the trekking team members:25 nos.

Discussion

Community notification

We would like for the Community to have at least one meeting with the trekking team, to gain a sense of how program evaluation works in the Wikimedia community. This would help the project manager develop learning patterns and other such documents that would be useful to the rest of the movement. We would also like to post one blog post on the Wikimedia Foundation's blog at the conclusion of the project.

Endorsements

Do you think this project should be selected for a Project and Event Grant? Please add your name and rationale for endorsing this project in the list below. Other feedback, questions or concerns from community members are also highly valued, but please post them on the talk page of this proposal.

1. This looks like an exciting Project. This will be an excellent opportunity to collect Photos for commons, collect data for Wiki & also simultaneously contribute to WikiVoyage.Also, this team can spread awareness of Wikimedia & its projects in the Dense & uphill slopes of Himalayas which are most of the times isolated from the rest.Wikipedia can actually act as a source of education for children who are not able to go to schools during the cold & snowy winter of the Himalayas.This project gets a big thumbs-up from me!! Yohannvt (talk) 12:06, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
2. Seems to be a very interesting project. From the above page, it is evident that the grant requester(s) have gone thru the entire proposal thoroughly. The scope and magnitude of this project is large and it will potentially impact multiple projects across multiple languages massively in the long run. I'm all for it. ----Rsrikanth05 (talk) 13:58, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
3. I endorse this project whole-heartedly. On going through the proposal, it is obvious that the proposers have done considerable home work and feasibility study which is of paramount importance in such a project. The trekkers, after having ensured sufficient supply and stock of media equipment and resources (such as 'replenishable' batteries, storage memory devices, GPS, photo, audio and video equipment) can definitely acquire immense amount of Wikimedia content that is otherwise rare to obtain. The estimated costs seems quite justifiable as there is a high value for money for the entire proposal. I also hope that proper precautions and preparations will be undertaken for the good health and safety of the participants. Best wishes! ----ViswaPrabhaവിശ്വപ്രഭ^talk 21:50, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
4. It is an exciting project that attracts the whole world. I fully support the event with great success ---user talk:Nrgullapalli
5. This might be a really bad precedent. Almost everyone wants to travel and getting Wikimedia Foundation to fund travel of any kind for the sake of some photographs seems to quite literally on a very slippery slope. -- Unsigned comment by 122.167.23.19 (talk)
6. I endorse the project as it is of great help for commons and wikivoyage.-Rangan Datta Wiki (talk) 14:56, 21 August 2015 (UTC)
7. endorsed, i think the after the expedition team will contribute unique resources to wiki --Dr. Bir (talk) 11:59, 22 August 2015 (UTC)
8. Best wishes. Please arrange to use GPS incorporated cameras and plenty of memory cards, batteries that Viswaprabha mentioned. I think this expedition may be consider as a Photographic Expedition. I also suggest to record some talk with local people with their language. --Gangulybiswarup (talk) 05:18, 24 August 2015 (UTC)
9.  Support. I endorse this project. Please try to use OSM maps and locate geo-coordinates for any significant plants that you come across. --Rahmanuddin (talk) 08:31, 25 August 2015 (UTC)
10.  Support Seems like an interesting project. Please try to have less duplication of images of same quality of the same place with the same frame, try to create a list of articles and potential articles that could be created that will benefit from this project. All the best for the grant. --Subhashish Panigrahi (talk) 08:40, 25 August 2015 (UTC)n diversifying Wiki
11.  Support It is a positive development for the Bangla community to have taken the lead in diversifying Wiki activities in the Indian subcontinent. I wish the participating Wikimedians great success for the trek and would be eagerly looking forward for their contributions post trek :)
    --Lahariyaniyathi (talk) 10:00, 25 August 2015 (UTC)
12.  Support Good initiative. Hope this enrich the Himalaya related contents in Wiki. Best of luck!!-Pasaban (talk) 16:20, 25 August 2015 (UTC)
13.  Support I think this project will be beneficial in result for Bangla Wikipedia.As Mr.Biswarup said it should be considered as a Photographic Expedition. S Shamima Nasrin (talk) 08:02, 29 August 2015 (UTC)S Shamima Nasrin
14.  Support I Hope this project will be beneficial for Commons and Wikivoyage.--Sajid (talk) 04:59, 30 August 2015 (UTC)
15.  Support This seems to be an enthusiastic project. Hope for the best. --Tito☸Dutta 07:53, 4 September 2015 (UTC)

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