Punjab's ecological record is thin and a substantial part of what exists now comes from amateurs.
Bird records submitted to eBird and to Indian bird atlas projects by Punjabi birdwatchers are the main current source on the state's bird distribution, because there is no systematic official survey.
The Asian Waterbird Census counts Harike and the other wetlands annually with volunteers.
Butterfly, tree and amphibian records are similarly amateur where they exist at all.
This matters practically. A species declines and nobody can prove it without a baseline, and a baseline only exists where somebody counted.
A person in a Punjab village with a phone can produce the only ecological record their district has, and several already are.
The pattern is the same in each case. A small number of committed amateurs, usually in one or two districts, produce almost all the records, and the coverage map of the state is a map of where those people live rather than of where the birds are.
The practical use is in the environmental clearance process, where a project is assessed against a baseline. Where no baseline exists the assessment records that no species of concern was found, and the absence of a record becomes the evidence.
The tools required are a phone, a data connection and a free application. The barrier is not equipment and it is not money. It is that almost nobody has been told the records are wanted or that they count for anything.