HYDERABAD: Although it is not peak season, Sanjeevaiah Park beside Hussainsagar lake is teeming with butterflies. Thanks to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA), the park is now getting fewer visitors and more butterflies.
In September 2019, under the Buddha Purnima Project Authority (BBPA), the HMDA decided to make the park exclusive to children and their attendants. “The number of visitors since September has gone down drastically. Ticket collection had come down from `10,000 a day to less than `5,000 a day,” said a ticket collector at the park. However, the number of butterflies at the same time went up as the number of visitors came down. “I have never seen so many butterflies here. Never since 2016,” said Mamatha, a gardener at the Butterfly Garden of Sanjeevaiah Park.
Dr Chelmala Srinivasulu, a zoologist from Osmania University said butterflies are usually inactive during winters. “But they can thrive in gardens if there is enough food and less human intervention,” said Srinivasulu. The renovated butterfly park at Hyderabad Zoo is protected by a fence to minimise the disturbance created by visitors. “The reduction in human intervention is the only reason we are seeing more butterflies at the zoo,” said N Kshitija, curator, Nehru Zoological Park.
B Sreenivas, Deputy Conservator of Forests and the Director of Urban Forestry from HMDA, said, “Since Sanjeevaiah Park is now a children’s-only park, the number of visitors has reduced. Minimal human intervention is one of the reasons for more butterflies to multiply.”
The right kind of plantation is anther reason. The ‘Heliotropium indicum’, commonly known as ‘Indian heliotrope’, is essential for all species of butterflies for producing pheromones (scent) that helps in breeding. “These plants are planted in large numbers at Sanjeevaiah Park and the flowering season in heliotrope plants is one of the reasons for more butterflies.”