Assessing Public Interest in Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation through Google Search Trends in India
Subhadipa Majumder
Department of Zoology, Panihati Mahavidyalaya, Sodepur, West Bengal, Kolkata-700110, India.
Ankur Bhowal *
Department of Zoology, Vidyasagar College, 39, Sankar Ghosh Lane, Kolkata – 700006, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
This research article aims to analyze long term Google search behaviour by the public which can be taken as a proxy for public interest in various biodiversity and conservation related topics over a ten-year period across India and globally.
In the current study, a set of 20 relevant keywords or search terms in English relating to Biodiversity and Conservation were selected and Google search volumes were extracted for a period of 10 years, from January 2015 to December 2024 for both India and the world. The Google search volume was analysed using non-parametric Mann-Kendall test for detecting the trend and Sen’s slope for detecting the magnitude of the trend. Additive Decomposition model was employed to decompose a time series and breakpoints were identified.
It was observed that, most Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation related terms showed an overall rising trend in India and globally. However, In India, ‘environment’, ‘endangered species’, and ‘wildlife trafficking’ lacked significant trends. A decline in search interest for the terms ‘deforestation’ and ‘extinction’ were also found in Indian scenario. Peak relative search volume in India clustered around and immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 18 terms showed significant structural breakpoints in their temporal trend. A phase wise temporal analysis revealed post-pandemic declines in search interest in India for eight terms. However, globally, only ‘biodiversity hotspot’ showed a similar decline in trend.
Keywords: Google trends, search term, biodiversity, conservation, temporal trend