Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Community Fund/Rapid Fund/Wiki Exploration Program 2024-25 (ID: 22598669)/Final Report
Application type: Standard application
Part 1: Project and impact
1. Describe the implemented activities and results achieved. Additionally, share which approaches were most effective in supporting you to achieve the results. (required)
The districts of Cooch Behar and Nadia have over 100 built heritage declared by West Bengal Heritage Commission in each of these district. Our first prime objective was to locate these built heritages and then document them. We took local drivers, local residents and local journalists to track them out as not everything is marked in Google maps. We planned the projects quite early holding small workshops among us. Interestingly among the list, there were some age old waterbodies too. We photo documented one terracotta temple which is in no Government list of built heritage.
For North Sikkim, it was strictly a travel agent's planned project as in those remote areas veteran Travel agents makes the best planning. We had asked a driver who knows the destination well and is not afraid to embark into damaged up hill roads as many monasteries are located on hill top.
For Aurangabad district, apart from the UNESCO world heritage Ajanta and Ellora caves, we documented a considerable number of remote forts and rock cut caves. Once again the locals were of great help as these places are not visited by tourists and are difficult to locate.
We uploaded about 13000 images and videos to Wikimedia Commons.
2. Documentation of your impact. Please use space below to share links that help tell your story, impact, and evaluation. (required)
Share links to:
- Project page on Meta-Wiki or any other Wikimedia project
- Dashboards and tools that you used to track contributions
- Some photos or videos from your event. Remember to share access.
You can also share links to:
- Important social media posts
- Surveys and their results
- Infographics and sound files
- Examples of content edited on Wikimedia projects
PROJECT PAGES :-
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Explores_Cooch_Behar_-_Phase_II
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Explores_Nadia_-_Phase_III
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Explores_Sikkim_-_Phase_II
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_Explores_Aurangabad_-_Phase_I
Sample PHOTOs
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paintings_in_Cave_no_32,_Ellora,_Maharashtra,_India_05.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baro_Akhra_Temple_4.jpg
Sample VIDEOS
BLOG LINK in Diff
https://diff.wikimedia.org/2025/07/29/wiki-exploration-program-phases-in-2024-2025/
MEDIA COVERAGE
https://thetheorist.in/wiki-exploration-program-west-bengal-wikimedians-user-group-amitabha-gupta/
Additionally, share the materials and resources that you used in the implementation of your project. (required)
For example:
- Training materials and guides
- Presentations and slides
- Work processes and plans
- Any other materials your team has created or adapted and can be shared with others
There is no specific material and resources which we use for Wiki Exploration Project. Usually we take a printed copy of the project page where name of all places to covered are written and then mark them in Google Maps. We keep brief descriptions of the prominent places in notepad in our mobile which comes very handy while locating a page. Planning is usually done with face to face meetings keeping pen and paper ready in old school style.
3. To what extent do you agree with the following statements regarding the work carried out with this Rapid Fund? You can choose “not applicable” if your work does not relate to these goals. Required. Select one option per question. (required)
| A. Bring in participants from underrepresented groups | Not applicable |
| B. Create a more inclusive and connected culture in our community | Agree |
| C. Develop content about underrepresented topics/groups | Strongly agree |
| D. Develop content from underrepresented perspectives | Strongly agree |
| E. Encourage the retention of editors | Strongly agree |
| F. Encourage the retention of organizers | Agree |
| G. Increased participants' feelings of belonging and connection to the movement | Agree |
| F. Other (optional) |
Part 2: Learning
4. In your application, you outlined some learning questions. What did you learn from these learning questions when you implemented your project? How do you hope to use this learnings in the future? You can recall these learning questions below. (required)
You can recall these learning questions below: Through this project I and my team members will have a better understanding on field documentation, photographic technique and optimal use of drone. We will also have better knowledge about current conditions of the heritage sites.
1. Increase dependencies on locals to track monuments. In Cooch Behar our local contact Rupjyoti
was immensely helpful to locate monuments and waterbodies.
2. Have subscription to large cloud space to keep backups more securely. 3. ND Filter needed for Drone for shooting in cloudy areas.
5. Did anything unexpected or surprising happen when implementing your activities? This can include both positive and negative situations. What did you learn from those experiences? (required)
We had some hard disc problem which never happened before. I have realized that external disc is not very reliable for storage media files and we are looking for cloud storage for storing our media files in future projects.
One positive experience I had in Sikkim, where our car got stuck in mud. Young monks from local monastery came to help us voluntarily and finally with their help the car was ready. We had documented some extreme remote monastery this time.
6. What is your plan to share your project learnings and results with other community members? If you have already done it, describe how. (required)
We have already held one to one meetings before every exploration project. We plan to share our total exploration project experience in coming group meetings.
Part 3: Metrics
7. Wikimedia Metrics results. (required)
In your application, you set some Wikimedia targets in numbers (Wikimedia metrics). In this section, you will describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used.
| Target | Results | Comments and tools used | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | 15 | 10 | |
| Number of editors | 10 | 4 | |
| Number of organizers | 2 | 2 |
| Wikimedia project | Target | Result - Number of created pages | Result - Number of improved pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wikipedia | |||
| Wikimedia Commons | 17000 | 13000 | 0 |
| Wikidata | |||
| Wiktionary | |||
| Wikisource | |||
| Wikimedia Incubator | |||
| Translatewiki | |||
| MediaWiki | |||
| Wikiquote | |||
| Wikivoyage | |||
| Wikibooks | |||
| Wikiversity | |||
| Wikinews | |||
| Wikispecies | |||
| Wikifunctions or Abstract Wikipedia |
8. Other Metrics results.
In your proposal, you could also set Other Metrics targets. Please describe the achieved results and provide links to the tools used if you set Other Metrics in your application.
| Other Metrics name | Metrics Description | Target | Result | Tools and comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
9. Did you have any difficulties collecting data to measure your results? (required)
No
9.1. Please state what difficulties you had. How do you hope to overcome these challenges in the future? Do you have any recommendations for the Foundation to support you in addressing these challenges? (required)
Part 4: Financial reporting
[edit]10. Please state the total amount spent in your local currency. (required)
381173.44
11. Please state the total amount spent in US dollars. (required)
4595.8
12. Report the funds spent in the currency of your fund. (required)
Upload the financial report
12.2. If you have not already done so in your financial spending report, please provide information on changes in the budget in relation to your original proposal. (optional)
13. Do you have any unspent funds from the Fund?
Yes
13.1. Please list the amount and currency you did not use and explain why.
$4.2
13.2. What are you planning to do with the underspent funds?
C. I am planning to send them back to the WMF
13.3. Please provide details of hope to spend these funds.
N/A
14.1. Are you in compliance with the terms outlined in the fund agreement?
Yes
14.2. Are you in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations as outlined in the grant agreement?
Yes
14.3. Are you in compliance with provisions of the United States Internal Revenue Code (“Code”), and with relevant tax laws and regulations restricting the use of the Funds as outlined in the grant agreement? In summary, this is to confirm that the funds were used in alignment with the WMF mission and for charitable/nonprofit/educational purposes.
Yes
15. If you have additional recommendations or reflections that don’t fit into the above sections, please write them here. (optional)
Review notes
[edit]Review notes from Program Officer:
N/A
Applicant's response to the review feedback.
N/A