Staff of the country’s first Butterfly Park have installed air coolers and spray water over flowers
Niranjan.Kaggere @timesgroup.com
Butterflies, since time immemorial, have coloured human imagination and turned out to be a muse for many. However, for the scientists and staffers of Bannerghatta Biological Park (BBP), they pose a great challenge and risk.
Reeling under the scorching heat, the staffers put up a valiant battle against nature every day to breed and carefully protect butterflies to entertain people who flock to the country’s first Butterfly Park in the BBP.
The lifespan of butterflies is just two to three days. As a result, employees of the butterfly park trek for about 10 km to the Bannerghatta forest every day with long nets to catch butterflies of various species. They also spend considerable time attracting butterflies to lay eggs on plants in a five acre area adjacent to the park.
“Summer is the most difficult time for us. Butterflies cannot withstand high temperatures and perish in less than three days. But you cannot tell this to the people who flock the park during summer to catch a glimpse of butterflies. You need to entertain them by accumulating as many butterflies as you can. That can only be achieved either by catching more and more butterflies or breeding them internally,” explains Venkatachalapathy, senior entomologist at the butterfly park.
Inside a Mexican dome, close to 60 to 70 different species of butterflies entertain crowds at the BBP. But because of the increasing temperature and fibre sheet, the inside of the dome is more like an oven.
“It is a challenging task for us to maintain the temperature at 30 degree centigrade. Hence, a month ago, we fitted six air coolers at different places. This apart, staff repeatedly spray water over flowers and plants to keep the mercury levels down,” says M Nanjundaswamy, chairperson of Zoo Authority of Karnataka (ZAK).
BRAVING ODDS TO CATCH BUTTERFLIES
Every morning, a couple of staffers set out to the forest to catch butterflies. Manjunath, an employee of the park who catches 250 to 300 butterflies with great difficulty till afternoon, says “We not only catch butterflies to release them inside the park (dome), but also for breeding.” However, it is challenging for the staff to identify male and female butterflies. “We catch them based on their colour or size of the abdomen. Generally females will have a bulged abdomen.”
While trying to catch butterflies, there have been times when staffers have been chased by elephants.
BREEDING IN FULL SWING
Perhaps the breeding section of the butterfly park appears like a factory producing butterflies every day.
“It is a fairly long procedure to breed butterflies. From mating to moth level, a butterfly would require at least 30 to 35 days. Once they become butterflies, they only live for about a week. Within that time, you need to ensure that they entertain people at the park and also indulge in reproduction,” explains Venkatachalapathy.
Out of the butterflies caught by the staff, the male and female butterflies are let into a netted enclosure for mating. The enclosure has host plants on which they lay eggs. Each species has its own host plants and lays eggs only on those plants. Sealed for a day or two, the couples would have mated and laid eggs on the plants. The egg containing leaves are carefully cut and transferred to plastic boxes with a colour pattern for each species.
The eggs become larvae or caterpillars in two days and continue to feed on leaves. Soon the larva becomes pupa and finally comes out fluffing as a butterfly.
“The caterpillars are fed fresh leaves of their host plant every day. For example, Lime Blue eats only lemon plant leaves, Common Mormon feed on only curry leaves. We ensure that only those leaves are fed. Once they start fluttering, they are put inside the dome,” said Venkatachalapathy.
Entrance to the Butterfly Park
A ‘bedroom’ for the butterflies; one of the host plants containing eggs; Venkatachalapathy shows larvae kept in a ventilated plastic container
