Talk:Community Resources and Partnerships/India Rapid Project/Wiki Exploration Program 2026-27

Follow up on your project application

Dear @Amitabha Gupta

Hope you are well. Thanks for submitting your project proposal. We have a follow up on your application:

1. Please link to community discussion endorsing this project. Your requests at the user group page have neither received endorsements from the community or a response from the user group decision making committee.
2. Please provide links to any project pages or activity reports from your earlier documentation work, whether or not it was supported by WMF.
3. You have mentioned that this is a West Bengal User Group project. Could you clarify what specific support you expect from the user group? Also, kindly note that any group already receiving India General Support funding is not eligible to receive additional support through India Rapid Support during the same funding period.
4. You listed states you plan to cover. Could you also specify the heritage sites or exact locations within these states that you plan to document with timelines?
5. Since you have a component of documentation beyond west bengal. What is the rational behind this expedition beyond West Bengal? Have you had any discussions with the respective regional or language communities about this plan?
6. There is a missing CA fees component from your budget. Kindly Make changes in the budget to reflect that.

Looking forward to your response by 30th Nov, 2025. Thanks PDas (WMF) (talk) 12:31, 25 November 2025 (UTC)

Dear @PDas (WMF):,

Thank you for taking time to follow up my application. Following are my answers to your questions :

Ans.1: The link to community discussion with response and endorsement from the user group is here.

Ans. 2: Please find the links of all Wiki Exploration projects below

• All images of Wiki Exploration project on Wikimedia Commons with sub-categories of all phases - Category:Wiki Exploration Program
• 2021 Rapid Fund proposal and its report
• 2024-25 Rapid Fund proposal and its report

Ans. 3: Wiki Exploration started as one of the West Bengal Wikimedians User Group programs in 2017. However, from 2019, as I had actively participated in this program to plan and conduct the documentation of heritage structures, the user group has given me the lead to independently run this program and I have been doing that ever since. The user group provides advice and technical support related to Wikimedia Commons, if and when needed.

Ans. 4: The heritage sites are as follows. I have already mentioned the locations of each State where I wish to photo document the built heritages in West Bengal Wikimedians Requests page with month and years.

1. Exploration Program Name : Wiki Explores Purulia - Phase II

Location : Purulia district, West Bengal

Time : Between January to March 2025

Expected impact :

Number of media files to be uploaded to Wikimedia commons - 1000 +

Number of media files used on Wikimedia projects: 10%-15%

Places to Cover (All Built heritages in these locality)

1. Raghunathpur

2. Bero

3. Bundla

4. Simla

5. Arrah

6. Dapunia

7. Garh Panchakot

8. Para

9. Pakbirra

10.Tadagram

11.Arsha

12.Tumba Jhalda

13.Baghmundi

14.Deulghata

15.Telkupi

16.Shanka

17.Mangalda

18.Podlara

19.Loulara

20.Choto Balarampur

21.Hutmura

22.Chaklator

---

Exploration Program Name : Wiki Explores Hooghly - Phase II

Location : Hooghly district, West Bengal

Time : Between January to March 2025

Expected impact :

Number of media files to be uploaded to Wikimedia commons - 1000 +

Number of media files used on Wikimedia projects: 10%-15%

Places to Cover (All Built heritages in these locality)

1.Haripal

2.Piasara

3.Tagra

4.Mahanad

5.Bali Dewanganj

6.Badanganj

7.Hamirbati

8.Parul

9.Chakdighi

10.Dasghara

11.Gurap

12.Janai

13.Baksa

14.Gourhati

15.Kankrakuli

16.Kayapat

17.Kalimba

18.Kotalpur

19.Gopinagar

20.Gurbari

21.Deulpara

22.Dhaniakhali

23.Puinan

24.Guptipara

25.Chandannagar

26.Chinsurah

---

Exploration Program Name : Wiki Explores Odisha - Phase I

Location : Mayurbhanj district, Khordha district, Dhenkanal district, Jajpur and Cuttack distrct of Odisha

Time : Between September to November 2025

Expected impact :

Number of media files to be uploaded to Wikimedia commons - 3000 +

Number of media files used on Wikimedia projects: 10%-15%

Places to Cover (All Built heritages in these locality)

1. Baripada

2. Bhubaneswar

3. Banapur

4. Dhenkannal

5. Cuttack

6. Jajpur

Exploration Program Name : Wiki Explores Madhya Pradesh - Phase I

Location : Satna district, Chhatarpur district, Datia district, Jhansi district, Gwalior district, Morena district, Raisen District, Ujjain district, Dhar district, Jabalpur district and Indore district of Madhya Pradesh

Time : Between September to November 2025

Number of media files to be uploaded to Wikimedia commons - 7000 +

Number of media files used on Wikimedia projects: 10%-15%

Places to Cover (All Built heritages in these locality)

1. Satna

2. Khajuraho

3. Datia

4. Jhansi

5. Gwalior

6. Morena

7. Bhopal

8. Sanchi

9. Bhimbetka

10.Ujjain

11.Indore

12.Mandu

13.Jabalpur

Ans. 5: We have completed documenting almost 80% of the heritage structures located in West Bengal and the rest of the scattered monuments in the state are going to be documented gradually. Beyond West Bengal, we have already completed two phases in Bihar in 2023, two phases in Sikkim in 2024 and 2025 one phase in Maharashtra in 2025 with previous WMF fundings. The sites were chosen based on the presence of low coverages of the heritage structures located there on Wikimedia Commons. So, this is not the first time we will be documenting outside West Bengal. I am personally not aware of any regional communities within Wikimedia in these two states, which I am going to cover next year, who have been documenting these heritage structures in an organized way, but if there are any, outside of my knowledge, I would be very happy to involve them during the process. As this is a photographic program and not a language based event, I think, language based communities are entirely out of scope, but if anyone from the language communities is interested in heritage documentation, I would be happy to engage and consult.

Ans. 6: I have now included INR 10,000 for CA fees and adjusted the budget accordingly Amitabha Gupta (talk) 06:22, 30 November 2025 (UTC)

Your Project Application is Approved

Dear @Amitabha Gupta,

We appreciate your effort in responding to the questions. I am pleased to inform you that your project application is approved for ₹ 4,42,848. It is advised that you share your plans with the Commons Photographers User Group or the respective regional communities to invite interested participants for the identified locations.

Please make sure to document all of your achievements and learning in the final report for review and others to learn from. Looking forward to seeing impactful outcome and collaboration in this project. Wishing you all the best! Thanks PDas (WMF) (talk) 15:34, 8 December 2025 (UTC)