BENGALURU: Gone are the days when children could spot butterflies and get excited, while adults would take out their cameras. This year, there has been a significant drop in the number of butterflies in comparison to last year.
For the past seven years, members of Bangalore Butterfly Club (BBC) – Ashok Sengupta, Haneesh K M, Nitin Ravikantachari and Rohit Girotra – have been doing a study on the number of butterflies under the guidance of Dr Krushnamegh Kunte, professor at National Centre for Biological Sciences. During this period, they recorded over 1 lakh butterflies. However, they observed a significant decrease in the number of butterflies this year.
“In 2017-2018, we got a count of 13,130 butterflies while in 2018-2019, we got only 11,021, which shows a 20 per cent drop in the population. This can be due to non-availability of host and nectar plants. This, in turn, depends on rainfall and conservation of trees, said Girotra.
The team said places like Doresanipalya Forest Campus, Lalbagh, Cubbon Park, Bangalore University, NCBC, IISC, Bannerghatta Park and Madivala Lake are great places to observe butterflies. However, it was pointed out that in 2018-2019, from March to June, the count was 3,733 while in 2019-2020, it is only 2,985.
Dr Kunte disclosed that habitats need to be created so that butterflies persist here. “The actual reason is not known for the decline, but it is mostly due to their shrinking habitat,” he said.
Butterfly caterpillars feed on specific plants, said Haneesh. “Availability of plants like Pongamia, lime, Ashoka, mango, guava, banana, custard apple and palm is critical for their survival. Once there are more such plants, we can see more butterflies,” he added. Sengupta said delay in monsoon can also be a reason for the drop in butterflies. “During the pre-monsoon time, butterflies move from Western Ghats to Eastern Ghats to escape the rains. They stop in Bengaluru and at that time, we can see more butterflies,” he said.
BCC takes the cake
Bangalore Butterfly Club members have observed the early stages of a few butterflies that are possibly first- timers in the modern photographic documentation on Indian Butterflies. “To name a few, we have observed early stages of Plains Blue Royal, Double Branded Crow, Redspot, all from Bengaluru,” said Sengupta.