We were driving along when my photographer friend Sandip Das exclaimed, “Wow!” A large butterfly was landing and flying and landing again on the mud by the roadside. We stopped to examine it and were surprised to find that it was a northern jungle queen – high on our wishlist!
We were on our way to the Dzongu Valley in July 2018 to photograph butterflies. Our homestay owner C. D. Lepcha picked us up in his car from Siliguri town early in the morning.
On the way we stopped to watch and photograph butterflies such as the angled red forester and the common earl. We even saw a butterfly we’d never seen before – a blue duke butterfly!
A TIRING TREK TO PASSINDANG
At first, we saw only one blue duke sitting on a rotting banana. Within a few seconds, four blue duke butterflies gathered at the spot. We were so excited, and though a bit nervous, we managed to get some good photographs. We then continued to walk towards Passindang village, where our homestay was located. It was a tiring trek and we reached our destination late in the evening, satisfied with ​our two rare sightings: the northern jungle queen and the blue duke.
This story is from the July 2019 edition of Sanctuary Asia.
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This story is from the July 2019 edition of Sanctuary Asia.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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