Winged Fairies Tourism: Butterflies Are Important for Human Food

If butterflies could not pollinate, it would probably be difficult for the human population to produce the right amount of food.

Whatever the beauty, it always gives happiness to the mind. The famous poet of English literature, John Keats, may have written this line, inspired by the soft beauty of butterflies. Such is the charm of the softness and beauty of butterflies. Talking about butterflies, beauty is not their only speciality.

Because of their natural lifestyle, they are the truly beautiful winged fairies on earth. If they could not pollinate, then it would probably be difficult for the human population to produce the right amount of food.

About 75% of the world’s food trees depend on butterflies and other pollinators such as bees, moths, bats, etc. Economists have estimated the ecosystem services of all pollinators to be around US$235–577 billion.

Butterflies, in particular, are experts at pollinating vegetables and green shag. The pollination of carrots, sunflowers, beans and mint-related plants is mainly dependent on butterflies.

Butterflies are a big contributor to bringing so many green vegetables to our plate which we have often overlooked. Perhaps the time has come for the butterflies to be commended for their ecosystem services.

Let us see, in which places butterflies can be seen in abundance in our country. Often these places are known as Butterfly Gardens. That is a garden in which such trees, plants and flowers are grown keeping butterflies in mind so that butterflies are attracted and come in more quantity.

Butterfly Garden for Butterflies

The Bannerghatta Biological Park in Bangalore, established in 2007 by the Department of Biotechnology, and the Zoo Authority of Karnataka, is India’s first butterfly garden. This was a very commendable step towards conserving butterflies and reviving the declining population.

The park is spread over 7.5 acres of land and has a 1-kilometre marked walkway, on which visitors can observe butterflies while strolling.

Here some audio-visual programs are also organized by the garden management to enhance the knowledge of the visitors. According to the website of Bannerghatta Biological Park, 48 types of butterflies are found here.

India’s second butterfly garden was established in 2008 in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. The park is spread over 4.8 acres of land and almost all 300 types of butterflies found in Himachal Pradesh can be found here.

Presently, the Forest Department of Himachal Pradesh is preparing to set up a new Butterfly Garden which can be inaugurated in the coming year.

In 2011, the Pune Municipal Corporation converted 2 acres of land on the site of a former drain into the Pune Butterfly Garden, which was opened for morning walks and exercises.

In the same year, a beautiful butterfly garden was inaugurated in Chandigarh spread over 7.5 acres, in which many types of trees and plants have been grown and special care has been taken for flowering plants.

Sikkim has also established a Butterfly Reserve this year which is India’s first largest open-air butterfly park, spread over 29 acres of land.

The climate of eastern India favourable for butterflies

The climate in eastern India is quite varied and the climate here is suitable for a wide variety of orchid plants. Orchids are the favourite plants of butterflies and for this reason, this park in Sikkim is a very important butterfly garden.

It is worth noting that the Architectural Brio Group, the builder of this butterfly garden in Sikkim, has also got the first prize in an international competition for planning the landscape architecture of this garden.

Due to the good diversity of butterflies in Arunachal Pradesh, the state government here has given a lot of encouragement to butterfly tourism and in the same direction in the year 2021, the Kaiser-e-Hind salt butterfly has been declared the state butterfly.

Some butterfly gardens can be found even in the capital of India, Delhi. In the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary this year the Forest Department has inaugurated a butterfly garden where the favourite plants of butterflies have been planted.

Butterflies like Striped Tiger, Peacock Pansy, Blue Pansy, White Orange Tip, Common Lime, etc. can be seen here.

Personal effort gardens for butterflies

It is worth knowing that such undertakings are not only taken by the government but also with individual effort, a beautiful garden can be created on private land, which along with becoming the centre of attraction of butterflies and also enjoyable for many people. and can be a source of awareness.

One such private effort was made by Rajendra Ovalekar, a resident of the Thane district of Maharashtra, on his 2 acres of private land and developed the Ovalekar Wadi Butterfly Garden.

About 100 species of butterflies can be seen in Ovalekar Park and Ovalekar himself takes interested visitors to know about the diversity of butterflies to their entire life cycle.

In Goa’s Ponda also, some common citizens together made about 1 acre of barren land green with their enterprise and interest and planted trees and plants that attract butterflies in it.

It came to be known as Goa Titli Sanrakshika (Goa Butterfly Conservatory) and has now become a tourist destination for many visitors to Goa.

It is quite possible that you can even make your private garden a centre of attraction for butterflies. All you have to do is plant the butterflies’ favourite plants. Stachytarphyta, Celosia, Xenia, Ixora, Crotalaria, Heliotropium, and Eupatorium are some of the species that attract butterflies quite easily.

The arrival of beautiful winged fairies in your courtyard will not only bring joy to your mind and courtyard but will also increase the number of these pollinators.

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