Four years and two floods later, I had the good fortune of again enjoying the rare phenomenon of migration of butterflies in Kerala’s Wayanad in the fag end of this September. Swarms of butterflies of eye-catching colours, sizes and shapes fluttered through my courtyard flower garden. It was a veritable feast to my eyes and a memory to my mind to cherish for a long time to come, as butterfly migration is becoming rare as the years pass by due to more reasons than one.
In the past, it was during November-December that the butterflies migrated to the Western Ghats after their sojourn in the Eastern Ghats. The last time I was lucky to witness the return migration of butterflies was four years ago. Since then, though I waited every year eagerly for the butterflies to return, they failed to wing through my garden in droves, sprinkling disappointment in my heart.
This year, before the usual time of migration, they came to gladden my heart as if to compensate for the disappointment they had caused in the past. It was the last day of September, sunny and bright, as swarms of hundreds of butterflies—blue tiger (Tirumala limniace), dark blue tiger (Tirumala septentrionis), double-branded crow (Euploea sylvester) and common crow (Euploea core)—fluttered through my garden and the patch of land I have left for wild plants to grow.
Some of the butterflies, to my surprise, rested their tired tiny body, alighting on various flowers such as marigold, rose, dahlia and wildflowers, and greedily tasted the pollen as they had a journey of more than 300 km from the Eastern Ghats to the Western Ghats. They looked like flowers with wings, sitting upon the flowers without wings. A marvellous sight!
In fact, I was witnessing the return of a new generation of butterflies to Wayanad. They had flown all the way from the Eastern Ghats, to escape the Northeast monsoon rains in the winter, to court and breed in the Western Ghats. Before the monsoon clouds gather over the Western Ghats they would start their return migration to the Eastern Ghats. The two-way migration of butterflies still baffles many a butterfly lover. It is only a month since I last witnessed the butterfly migration. I am waiting for next September to come soon to see a new generation of butterflies. They never fail to evoke awe and wonder in me.