Rise in butterfly species: Experts

The number of butterfly species in the national Capital has gone up to 75 from 69 in 2017, experts revealed on the concluding day of the second edition of the ‘Delhi Butterfly Month’ on Saturday.

Experts said an increase in butterfly population is good news because butterflies are a crucial indicator of assessing if the ecosystem is healthy. Moreover, butterflies work as pollinators for food crops.

In a first, nearly 85% species of butterflies were found in 36 of the city parks and gardens, besides protected areas. The four most uncommon sightings—Common Blue Line, Balkan Pierrot, Dingy Swift and Spotted Pierrot—were found in city parks, mostly the ones around residential colonies. Interestingly none of the four species were sighted in the protected forest areas.

Conservationists said Common Blue Line and Balkan Pierrot were found at parks in northwest Delhi, which is considered to be a completely urbanised area.

Elaborating further, conservationists said while the Common Blue Line was spotted in Sheesh Mahal garden in Shalimar Bagh, the Balkan Pierrot, which was sighted at Sheesh Mahal garden as well, was also found in Rohini’s Japanese Park.

Such diversity in butterfly species at parks across urban areas, conservationists said, is notable as they had not expected these species would be spotted in such parts of the city.

Sohail Madan, centre manager at Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and one of the lead members carrying out the census, said, “This time, the survey in urban parks yielded surprising results. Some unusual butterflies were spotted here, which were not even found in the sanctuaries. This indicates that remnants of historical butterfly population are still in these areas and hence these need to be conserved and remedial measures need to be taken so that they are not lost.”

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