BHOPAL: In a heartening discovery, a vibrant Monkey Puzzle butterfly has been spotted in the Pench Tiger Reserve (PTR) of south-eastern Madhya Pradesh, famously known as the ‘Land of Jungle Book’s Mowgli.’
Forest guards in PTR, have now taken up photography as part of a unique conservation effort. With their mobile phones, they have helped identify nearly 100 species of butterflies and 44 species of wild mushrooms, many of which are mostly of European origin. These discoveries were made across the 1,179 sq km reserve, particularly in its 411 sq km core area.
Among the butterflies, the Monkey Puzzle ‘Rathinda’ was captured on camera—believed to be the first time it has been spotted in the forests of Central India.
“Each forest guard and associated watchers/chowkidars work in an average area of 5-7 square km and serve as the backbone of conservation efforts, by working tirelessly on the frontlines to protect forests and wildlife. Over the years, the round-the-clock patrolling duties to track the movement of carnivores, like tigers and leopards and preventing any possible animal poaching and tree felling in the dense forests make them feel aloof and often leaves them fatigued. The entire idea of training them in clicking perfect pictures of insects and butterflies was aimed to enrich their work, decrease monotony by incentives like photography competitions and ultimately improve their precise vision and reflexes,” said PTR’s deputy director Rajnish Singh.
He added, “While large number of forest guards were engaged in the unique exercise for the last many months, over 30 of them, aided by watchers and chowkidars, have really done good. One of them Milind Gedam helped us spot the butterfly Monkey Puzzle, perhaps the first time ever in the Central Indian jungles. We’ve so far identified 100 butterfly species, which are being compiled in a booklet titled ‘Butterflies and Tiger: Photographs by the Brave Forest Guards of Pench,’ to be released on July 29 (International Tiger Day).”
Forest guard Milind Gedam, who made the significant discovery, shared, “The PTR management gave us a booklet of details of butterflies before we ventured on clicking pictures of varied hued- butterflies in the jungles. Total 79 species were captured by me over the last few months. Monkey Puzzle was one of those species.”
Another guard, Manoj Salame, who has been protecting the forests since 2009, said, “Clicking pictures of butterflies has added a new drive and dimension to our work. Many chromatic butterflies have been clicked by me, including the Lime Butterfly, Common Pirate, Black Rajah and the Dawny Rajah species. Winning the second prize among all the forest guards engaged in this exciting work has ushered confidence and new meaning to my job of guarding the forests.”
While the butterfly booklet is set to be released on International Tiger Day, a similar collection of wild mushrooms clicked by the forest guards was released in November 2024. It was the first time any tiger reserve in India had undertaken such an exercise to document mushroom diversity.
“It was perhaps the first time the floral biodiversity of wild mushrooms was captured in pictures and studied by any tiger reserve in the country. The mushrooms were photographed by the forest guards and the samples of all mushrooms too were brought by them from the forests. Subsequent macro morphological study of the mushrooms helped us identify and document in a booklet, 44 wild mushroom varieties, most of which were of European origin,” said Dr Balwant S Keswhwal, Ranger of PTR’s Gumtara Forest Range, who led the project.
Madhya Pradesh, known as India’s tiger state, is not just home to tigers, leopards, cheetahs, wolves, and gharials, but also shelters around 150-175 butterfly species. The forests of Kanha, Bandhavgarh, and Satpura in the eastern region of the state are especially rich in butterfly diversity.