Butterflies survive Mumbai's concrete onslaught

Despite being home to an ever-expanding concrete jungle and rapid deforestation, Mumbai’s butterflies have managed to survive the odds and continue to delight nature enthusiasts.

Now, a first-of-its-kind book on the 153 species of butterflies found in and around the city will document these winged insects.
Launched on Tuesday at Maharashtra Nature Park (MNP) in Dharavi, Butterflies of Mumbai brings together little-known facts about these insects with more than 400 pictures of the different species.

“British naturalists were the first ones to orally document 129 different species in the Bombay region. But the demography of the city has changed since Independence,” said writer and nature enthusiast Nelson Rodrigues who has penned the book after six years of research.

Rodrigues added that other naturalists before him have also prepared “butterfly lists” but data on the winged insects has never been put together in a single volume.

“In this book, I have also included three species that were recently discovered in the Mumbai region — the Abnormal Silver Line, the Giant Red Eye and the Large Guava Blue,” he said.

“I have kept the language devoid of jargon so that the book can be read by students and nature enthusiasts alike,” said Rodrigues who has classified the butterflies not on the basis of the family of species they belong to but according to colour.

Butterflies play an important role as pollinators and their presence is an indication that the environment is unpolluted. “Unfortunately, their numbers are dwindling even in greener pockets of the city because of the use of pesticides and the weeding out of wild plants on which the butterflies feed or lay eggs,” said Rodrigues, adding that the Southern Birdwing, a yellow and black butterfly known to be the biggest in India, is no longer seen in Mumbai.

Rodrigues, who plans to help people set up butterfly gardens near forests or villages across Maharashtra, said that the best places in the city for butterfly spotting are MNP, Borivli National Park, Yeoor Hills in Thane and the Vasai Fort area.