BarkVisionAI: Novel dataset for rapid tree species identification

Tree species identification and mapping is crucial for forest management, biodiversity conservation, and ecological research. Bark images can be captured easily from the ground-level and can provide large amount of information about the tree species and its health. Yet, existing datasets for tree bark images are often limited in scope, lacking diversity in species representation and temporal attributes. To address these limitations, we present BarkVisionAI, a comprehensive dataset of 156001 tree bark images for 13 species collected from diverse forest types across India. Each image is labeled with location, species name, device attributes, and timestamp, providing a robust foundation for studying species identification and the variability of bark characteristics. We are providing detailed metadata information about each image, encouraging its use in ecological research, machine learning model training, and environmental monitoring. Benchmarking experiments using standard image classification models demonstrate the dataset's utility and effectiveness, highlighting its potential as a valuable resource for developing reliable, real-world applications in automated tree species identification and environmental change monitoring.