Lodhi Gardens carves out a green niche to offer butterflies a safe haven

“The last time I saw a butterfly in Delhi was in 1981. Since then,I’ve seen them in Bangalore,but in Delhi they have visibly reduced. Scientists say that butterflies are severely affected by climate change. Clearly they need help,” Ramesh said.

“Let us consider butterflies to be winged ambassadors for the environment. With minimum effort and money,we have managed to get butterflies to breed in the observatory. They need very little to live,” said Suhas Borker from the activist group,Green Circle,who first presented the proposal to NDMC.

Butterflies are set to be part of the Commonwealth Games attractions.

“We are developing the Commonwealth Games park where saplings from different Commonwealth countries will be planted. We’re also developing a butterfly section at the park,” NDMC Chairman Parimal Rai told Newsline.

It will take some time,however,before the butterfly can truly range over Lodhi Gardens again. The observatory in Lodi was set up 40 days ago and only had a couple of butterflies.

“For the last 5 years,around 40 per cent of the butterflies in Delhi can no longer be seen. The general perception is that if you plant flowers,you will see butterflies flourish. But flowers are required only in the last stage of the butterfly pupa. Butterflies generally require biodiversity to survive. There are around 76 to 78 species of butterflies in Delhi,but their population has become very localised. Commonly you may see the ‘Plain tiger’ (orange and black) species. But rarer ones like the Bluebottle are likely to be found only in areas like the Rashtrapati Bhawan and Delhi University which have several plant species,” said biologist Faiyaz Khudsar.