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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Butterfly researcher underlines need to conserve forest fragments

GANGTOK, 30 May: “There are more than 650 species of butterflies in Sikkim and Dzongu is one area where one will be able to find most of the species and hopefully make new discoveries,” said Dr Krushnamegh Kunte, president of Indian Foundation for Butterflies and a scientist of Harvard University, here today. He is in Sikkim as part of a 3-year research study on butterflies of Sikkim and has finished a 10-day tour of East, West and North Sikkim. This was his third trip to the state, while the first was made in April, 2008.

“In Boston, there is a museum on butterflies and most of the species on display are tagged ‘From Sikkim’, but actually most of them have been collected from the Eastern Himalayas [Darjeeling, Khasi Hills and the Indo-China border] and nothing from Sikkim. So I wanted to update this collection and if possible, create maps of each species of butterflies of Sikkim,” he said.
“Small forest fragments in Sikkim are extremely important and valuable, they may not be yet but in the next 10-20 years they will be very important as most of such wildlife will only be found in these forest covers,” he said and added that everything cannot be protected by Forest officials and that is where eco-tourism comes in.
“We started the trek from Phademchen and went on to Pakyong, but unfortunately we did not find any butterflies. We then went to Rongli and Rolep, and that was where we found lots of butterflies, some were rare, while others were the common types. We then continued on to Kumrek and also visited the Kitam Bird Sanctuary. But our most productive tour of the survey was Dzongu, where we found butterflies which are listed under the Schedule I and II of the Wildlife Protection Act.”
Speaking on the habitat and lifespan of the butterflies, he explained that butterflies are very territorial and depending on the species, can restrict their movement to very small areas or fly many a miles away. The same goes for their lifespan, they can either live for one to one and a half weeks while others can live upto one to one and a half months.
“This survey does prove a point that wildlife is not only found inside sanctuaries and national parks, but much can be found in and around small pockets of forests and if the right type of plants are grown in your garden then one does not have to go looking around forests for butterflies,” he stated.
Addressing the butterfly lovers of Sikkim, he said, “Just keep going out and keep taking photographs of everything, who knows what you may find or of which species because butterflies are very shy and one does not get time to get very close, so keep on clicking.”
The briefing was also attended by Lukendra Rasaily [TAAS], Usha Ganguly Lachungpa [Principal Research Officer, Forest Department], Ongden Lepcha [Range Officer, Forest Department], and representatives of the Sikkim Ornithological Society [SOS], tour operators, TAAS members and butterfly lovers of Sikkim.


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