Butterflies with black and pale yellow colours and a mild touch of green were named Indian Nawabs, as they were found on hillocks, where nawabs and rajas built their forts and palaces with gardens.
Now, these ‘Indian Nawabs’ have found a new home — the butterfly park at Vandalur zoo, which has profuse greenery with a hillock to boot. These Nawabs are known for their swiftness and found in various places, mainly hillocks on the Himalayan range between Kashmir and Sikkim. They are also found in the Western ghats. “These butterflies prefer cool weather with a lot of greenery around them. It is nice to see them again, despite cyclone Vardah destroying much of the tree cover at the Vandalur zoo,” said a zoo official.
Another butterfly that has been flocking to the zoo after the cyclone, is Danaid Eggfly. Zoo officials said that unlike the Indian Nawabs, these butterflies are also found in dry areas with many flowering plants. Vadodara (Gujarat) and Calicut (Kerala) are known for supporting swarms of butterflies. Vandalur zoo was re-opened for the public a week ago. It had been closed after Cyclone Vardah in December last year. More than 15,000 trees were uprooted in the zoo and the infrastructure, including enclosures, water lines and overhead tanks (OHTs), had suffered severe damage. The caterpillar-shaped butterfly park, which was built at a cost of Rs. 4 crore on a huge parcel of land measuring 2.7 hectares, near Otteri lake at Vandalur zoo, and opened in September 2015, was badly damaged in the cyclone. Facilities at the butterfly park like nectar and rock gardens, walkways, breeding and rearing centres and enclosures for exotic varieties of insects were damaged. Nevertheless, the butterfly park, modelled on the lines of the Bannerghatta butterfly park in Bengaluru, at the Vandalur zoo is back on its feet with forest officials identifying more than 35 butterfly species including common Mormon, common Jezebel, common Leopard, Blue Mormon, Yellow Pansy and Red Helen. Prior to cyclone Vardah, zoo officials said the butterfly park in Vandalur zoo had more than 55 species of butterflies with around 220 varieties of plant species, both native and exotic.
