Five contenders vie for 'Mumbai's Butterfly' tag. Cast your vote

From the 150 species of butterflies Mumbai has, the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has short-listed five of them. Now, Mumbaikars have to select one to make it ‘Mumbai’s Butterfly’.

“Mumbai’s chaotic environment with its acute space crunch has still managed to accommodate 150 species of butterflies,” said Atul Sathe, spokesperson of BNHS.

“This represents an astonishing 10% of India’s butterfly diversity. In comparison to other major cities, Mumbai fares better in housing such a huge number of butterfly species,” he added.

According to information available with BNHS, Bangalore has 140 species of  butterflies, Pune around 120 species, Delhi over 90 species while Kolkata has 80 species.

The event to select ‘Mumbai’s Butterfly’ will be held on October 27 (Sunday) at Conservation Education Centre in Goregaon. You can take part in the event and vote for your favourite butterfly from the short-listed ones.

The event aims to promote conservation of the colourful butterflies and also watching and spotting them in their natural environment. “The idea is to choose the most charismatic, yet commonest butterfly of Mumbai,” said Sathe.

The five contenders short-listed by BNHS are Plain Tiger, Common Crow, Common Mormon, Common Emigrant and Tailed Jay.