New hilly species fuel Delhi's butterfly rise

Once a year, Big Butterfly Month of September turns Delhi into an open-air observatory -- its gardens, forest edges and city parks alive with the flutter of wings.

- Jasjeev Gandhiok

This year recorded 70 species, two more than last year. But the bigger finding was the number of rarities observed and the absentees who returned, And, for the second year in a row, new Himalayan species made their way into Delhi’s checklist.

Ecologists said the discovery of new species in Delhi is more than a mere statistical bump. It signals the surprising ways in which butterflies are arriving, and some even settling here.

This year, Delhi has seen an unusual run of favourable conditions -- ample monsoon, expanding green zones, and addition of butterfly parks. These have created more space for breeding and also become landing ground for “accidental immigrants”.

Many of these newcomers, experts said, hitchhiked into the city on saplings, fruits and vegetables sourced from Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Eggs and pupae clinging to leaves and twigs often survive transport and complete metamorphosis once they reach Delhi's warmer, greener spaces.

“Butterflies are not merely adornments of our surroundings, they are vital messengers of ecological health,” said Sohail Madan, ecologist and Director at the WildTales Foundation, who has been a part of every Big Butterfly Month since 2017. “This year's enhanced sightings show that when habitat is nurtured, nature responds.”