In the vibrant heart of Mumbai, at the prestigious One Lodha Place, a dynamic convergence of AI engineers, developers, ML researchers, and animal advocates gathered on February 1, 2026, for a day of intensive collaboration and innovation. The Mumbai Hackathon 2.0 brought together India's brightest tech minds with a singular mission: to build real-world solutions that could transform animal protection and reimagine the food system.
The timing was strategic. Just one day earlier, on January 31, the India Animal Welfare Forum (initiated by Upadhyay Foundation) had convened the very organizations and innovators who now needed these solutions most animal protection groups, plant-based businesses, and food system pioneers. Their live challenges, fresh from the forum floor, became the hackathon's driving force, ensuring every line of code written would address an urgent, real-world need.
Participants channeled their technical expertise into rapid prototyping and intense problem-solving, transforming abstract challenges into tangible AI-driven tools. The atmosphere crackled with purpose as developers who had never met before united around a shared vision of leveraging technology for compassion at scale.
EcoGuardian (Team 7):
Problem statement: AI-generated animal videos are increasingly used for misinformation, fraud, and propaganda. Build a verification tool that identifies synthetic media, flags manipulation, and provides confidence scores for authenticity. Protect the truth when anyone can fabricate evidence.
Solution created in Hackathon : An AI-powered forensic platform to verify the authenticity of animal videos.
They developed an advanced AI forensic system that detects synthetic manipulation in animal-related videos, helping combat wildlife misinformation and fraud. Powered by Vision Transformers (ViT) trained on animal-specific features such as fur patterns, feather structures, and motion signatures, the platform analyzes key video frames using smart frame sampling to ensure both speed and accuracy.
Learn more about them here
2. 24/7 Multilingual Rescue Hotline AI
Problem statement : Millions of animal emergencies go unreported because callers can't navigate language barriers or don't know who to contact. Build an AI call agent that understands regional languages and dialects, assesses emergency severity, and instantly routes callers to the right local rescuers, vets, or authorities. The goal: no animal dies because someone couldn't communicate their emergency.
Solution created in Hackathon : The team created sahayak, A 24/7 Multilingual AI Rescue Hotline that understands regional languages and dialects, quickly assesses animal emergencies, and instantly connects callers to the nearest rescuers, veterinarians, or authorities. The AI prioritizes cases based on severity and location, ensuring fast, accurate, and life-saving responses anytime, anywhere.
The system acts as a centralized emergency response platform for animal welfare, eliminating confusion about whom to contact during critical situations. By combining AI-driven call handling, real-time location detection, and automated routing, it ensures that every emergency report reaches the right responder without delay. This enables faster coordination, better resource utilization, and significantly improves survival rates for animals in distress.
Learn more about them here
3. Veterinary Desert Diagnostic AI
Problem statement : Billions of animals live in regions with zero veterinary access. Can AI bridge that gap with diagnostic accuracy that matches or exceeds human professionals? Build a system with robust feedback loops, confidence scoring, and clear escalation protocols. The benchmark: 100% accuracy on critical decisions, with the humility to know when it doesn't know.
Solution created in Hackathon : The team created a system to empower farmers through accessible technology.
With visual technology- where they can upload cattle images for immediate diagnosis
Voice assistance- where farmers from different areas can speak in their regional language and get instant guidance
SOS Emergency- Immediate help during critical situations
Vaccination Reminders- Never miss critical immunization dates
Vet Locator- Find nearest veterinarian instantly
Disease maps- Track regional outbreaks in real-time
Learn more about it here
4. Pawsitive
Problem statement: When someone spots a dog in distress, the clock starts. But right now, the gap between "someone cares" to "someone acts" is a black hole - no tracking, no accountability, no feedback loop. Build a system where anyone can submit a geotagged photo of an animal in need. The nearest partnered NGO receives the alert with location and severity assessment. They dispatch a rescuer who's tracked in real-time on a map - Uber-style - so the reporter, the NGO, and funders can all see the response happening. The rescuer photographs the animal on arrival and again on intake at the facility. Every rescue becomes a verifiable, timestamped story: distress → dispatch → arrival → safe. The killer feature is the funder layer. Response time, completion rate, photo verification - these become trust metrics that let donors reward the rescue groups taking fastest action. NGOs competing on speed and transparency instead of sad marketing. Accountability infrastructure that turns compassion into a race to help first.
Solution created in Hackathon : They built a centralized mission hub where animal rescue becomes coordinated, trackable, and time-sensitive rather than chaotic and delayed.
Pawsitive Connect is a mission-control platform (web and mobile) designed to reduce rescue response time, eliminate field-level guesswork, and ensure help reaches animals before it’s too late.
The system brings reporting, real-time mapping, NGO coordination, communication, donations, and gamified community engagement into one unified ecosystem turning scattered efforts into structured action.
Learn more about them here