Balachander T

The simplification of access to the Global Positioning System (GPS) via smartphones, along with mapping solutions built to leverage these in the form of easy-to-use apps, has contributed to the widespread adoption of geospatial technologies in the rural landscape.

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A village of nine families bounded by a river on one side and thick forests on the other, lived here in Kilcoupe, an Irula hamlet in the Nilgiris. The women went out into the forest in search of water, a risky activity, as there was quite a large chance that they would encounter either a gaur or an elephant, sometimes even a leopard.

The Internet and mobile revolutions have combined to give birth to whole new generations of tools that put skills that were squarely in the domain of specialists a decade ago, in the hands of laypersons and amateurs.

The Nilgiris have undergone an incredible amount of change in the last 10 years. Coonoor, an area well endowed with natural resources, is the second largest tourist destination here. However, over the last year (2012-13), the town has been reeling under a water crisis [1].