Book on butterflies of Sikkim released

GANGTOK, 30 Oct: Nosang Muringla, a butterfly enthusiast, released his debut book, “The Flying Pearl of Sikkim Himalaya” on Tuesday, becoming the first Sikkimese to publish a book on Sikkim’s butterflies. The 168-page book featuring 225 butterfly species of Sikkim was released by West district DFO (Wildlife),Tshering Pintso Bhutia.
A press release informs that the self-published pictorial guide book contains butterflies species found only in Sikkim. All the photographs in the book have been captured by the author over a period of three years.
Using more than 300 colour photographs, the book describes 225 butterfly species found in the state. The book discusses the biology, identification of butterflies as well as butterfly watching, and photography.
The book not only lists all the butterflies but also talks about their habitat. It has an introduction to let a novice reader understand how to identify a butterfly.
Nosang hopes to highlight Sikkim on the butterfly map of India. Encouraged by Nelson Mandela’s quote “vision without action is but a dream, action without vision just passes the time and vision with the action changes the World”, the author says: “it helped me develop ideas about doing something for my State and for the coming generation.”
After completing his graduation from St. Joseph’s college, Darjeeling, he got fully involved in tourism, with special interest in wildlife.  With a desire to do something different he entered into the world of butterflies where he was well supported in developing his skills by well-known birders of the country –  Peter Lobo, Chewang Rinchen Bonpo, Dr.Sanjyog Rai, Sir Allan Pearson, English Birder/Sketch Artist and Tarun Karmakar, field biologist from National Center for Biological Science, the release mentions.
Nosang says, “Our State has blessed us with immense love and peace and we are naturally so rich. We own nearly sixty percent bird life and more than fifty percent butterfly species of the country and other natural wealth even though it is the smallest state of the country. It’s a great honour and a matter of pride to be a Sikkimese, simultaneously it’s also our duty to give back equal love and respect by various means of conservation and contribution in every field to our beautiful state of Sikkim. “
He is currently a fulltime butterfly photographer.