Butterfly park grows wings

The beauty of butterflies has been capturing the imagination of poets and authors for ages, but now it has enamoured a youngster to such an extent that he has started a vast park dedicated to the winged creatures fondly called “self-propeled flowers”.

Sammilan Shetty of Belvai village, on the foothills of Western Ghats, has started the state’s first (and the country’s second) butterfly park, which is spread on 7.35 acres of land.

He says one cannot imagine the number of butterfly species in the Western Ghats region. He says as many as 111 species have been identified in his park, which, he claims, boasts of endemic and some of the most dazzling butterflies in the world.

Shetty’s park has a significant variety of naturally found host plants of butterflies. The result is a thriving bio-diversity in the area. The park also hosts a significant variety of naturally found host plants and the result is the thriving bio-diversity in the park.

The secondary forest is engulfed with the iconic tree of Western Ghats, the Hopea ponga, which is the host plant of three varieties of Oakblue found here. Efforts to propagate more native host plants to support the caterpillar stage of butterflies are in progress.

The inspiration
Shetty says the idea of starting such a park germinated in his mind when he was allotted a project, ‘Study of Local Butterflies’, by his zoology teacher during his graduation at Alva’s College, Moodabidri, in 2006. In the process of making his project, he got besotted with butterflies and decided to start a park for them.

He says a write-up on gardening for butterflies in naturalist Isaac Kehimkar’s The Book of Indian Butterflies further motivated him to pursue his dream. He says it took him five years to prepare his 7.35 acres of land to host the winged creatures.

The park is now open for general public, who can visit it on all Sundays from 8.30 am to 12.30 pm.