Nela — Kodagu.ai · read from space

Madikeri Taluk — Pilot Field Brief

Monsoon 2026 · nela.kodagu.ai · Pilot

Nela is a free, Kannada-first web app that reads your land from satellites — a daily monsoon landslide risk level for your place, plus soil, crop & coffee health. This brief is for running the first small pilot: a handful of Madikeri households and a Forest / disaster-management contact, through one monsoon stretch, to learn what works before going wider.

The goal

What we want to learn

  • Can people install & open it without help?
  • Do they understand the colours and the plain-Kannada "why"?
  • Is the Kannada correct and natural?
  • Do they trust it enough to glance during rain?
  • Does it work on their phone & network?
  • Do the soil/crop layers feel useful on ordinary days?
Who to recruit

5–8 households + 1 official

  • Families on or near slopes in Madikeri taluk.
  • A mix: a coffee grower, a hillside family, one phone-comfortable, one not.
  • A range of phones & network quality (incl. a low-end Android).
  • One Forest Dept or district disaster-management officer.
What to say to each person

Honest, in their words

English
ಕನ್ನಡ
Nela shows a daily landslide risk colour for your place — from free satellites, in Kannada.
ನೆಲ ನಿಮ್ಮ ಸ್ಥಳದ ದೈನಂದಿನ ಭೂಕುಸಿತ ಅಪಾಯ ಮಟ್ಟವನ್ನು ಬಣ್ಣದಲ್ಲಿ ತೋರಿಸುತ್ತದೆ — ಉಚಿತ ಉಪಗ್ರಹಗಳಿಂದ, ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ.
It is a pilot helper — not a replacement for GSI / district warnings. "Low" (green) does not mean "safe".
ಇದು ಪ್ರಾಯೋಗಿಕ ಸಹಾಯ ಸಾಧನ — GSI/ಜಿಲ್ಲಾ ಎಚ್ಚರಿಕೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಬದಲಿ ಅಲ್ಲ. ‘ಕಡಿಮೆ’ (ಹಸಿರು) ಎಂದರೆ ‘ಸುರಕ್ಷಿತ’ ಅಲ್ಲ.
In an emergency, call 112 and follow the authorities.
ತುರ್ತು ಸಂದರ್ಭದಲ್ಲಿ 112 ಗೆ ಕರೆ ಮಾಡಿ, ಅಧಿಕಾರಿಗಳನ್ನು ಪಾಲಿಸಿ.
It's free, no app store — just add it to your home screen.
ಇದು ಉಚಿತ; ಆ್ಯಪ್ ಸ್ಟೋರ್ ಬೇಡ — ಮುಖಪುಟಕ್ಕೆ ಸೇರಿಸಿ.
We want your honest feedback — it's okay to say it's confusing or wrong.
ನಿಮ್ಮ ಪ್ರಾಮಾಣಿಕ ಅಭಿಪ್ರಾಯ ಬೇಕು — ಗೊಂದಲ ಅಥವಾ ತಪ್ಪಿದ್ದರೆ ಹೇಳಿ.
Set up · 2 minutes

Get it on their phone

  1. Open nela.kodagu.ai in the browser.
  2. iPhone: Share ⬆ → Add to Home Screen. Android: ⋮ menu → Install app.
  3. Tap their place on the map → "Alert me" → Allow notifications.

iPhone: open Nela from the new home-screen icon (not the Safari tab) so alerts work.

During the pilot

What to watch for

Friction — installed alone?
Clarity — colours understood?
Language — Kannada right?
Habit — opened in rain?
Devices — works on their phone?
Value — soil/crop useful?
Trust — believed it?
Safety — anything misleading?
Feedback loop

A simple weekly check-in

Once a week (call / visit / WhatsApp), ask five things and jot the answers in a shared list: ① Did you open Nela this week? ② Was anything confusing? ③ Any wrong or awkward Kannada? ④ Did it match what you saw outside? ⑤ What one thing would make it more useful? The app's Help page also has a link to report issues.

Non-negotiable — say this every time

Safety & responsibility

  • Nela is decision-support, not a guarantee.
  • Never tell anyone a green cell is "safe".
  • Always defer to GSI / district / authorities.
  • Emergencies → call 112, evacuate when told.
  • Don't over-promise accuracy — it's a pilot.
  • Weights & thresholds are still being calibrated.
Success looks like

Most households install it, understand it, and trust it enough to glance during rain — and the Kannada + core flow hold up. That's the green light to widen the pilot and turn on WhatsApp alerts. Whatever breaks first is simply what we fix first.