Butterfly numbers have marginally increased in the national Capital as compared to last year. In a fresh butterfly count held on Sunday in different locations, Aravali Biodiversity Park is on top in hosting good numbers of butterflies’ species. This year, Arvali is hosting 56 butterfly species, however, in 2017 the number was 46.
Yamuna Biodiversity Park (YBP) , Neela Hauz, Northern Ridge , Tilpath Valley Biodiversity Park and Tughlaqabad Biodiversity Park are the location where every year butterflies nested. YBP and Neela Hauz are the ranges where butterfly counts has been recorded on a higher side good followed by Arvalli range.
Dr Faiyaz Khudsar, lead scientist of Biodiversity Parks Programme suggested that butterflies are most charismatic among urban wildlife and there are two major reasons for declining butterflies in Urban centres: small fragmented manicured spaces even reduces the chances of encounter other butterflies of same species to reproduce and urban heat island effect leads to earlier emergence and longer flight period impacting reproductive biology of butterflies.
“DDA Biodiversity Parks overcome both the reasons by providing contiguous habitat and slowly becoming climate resilient ecosystems,” Dr Khudsar said.
Explaining about Delhi’s topology in terms of ecology here, the scientist said, “Delhi, being a national capital faces huge anthropogenic pressure since decades.
Ecologically Delhi is nestled between two different types of topology, one is rugged Aravalli hill range and its typical scrub forest, another is the Yamuna River and its fertile alluvial flood plains, and this type of topology makes many microhabitat zones in between these two large ecological landscapes.”
These landscapes have also changed very rapidly during last 20 years due to urbanisation and change in land use. Such a scenario presents a unique opportunity to study butterflies, which are recognized worldwide as indicator of climate change.
These biodiversity parks provide natural habitat for butterflies of the Delhi region and site-specific Butterfly conservatories have also been developed in these Biodiversity Parks.
Butterflies are known as indicator of pollution and climate change.
From the year 2017, a new event in the name of Delhi’s Big Butterfly count was started in Delhi as a citizen’s initiative by the Bombay Natural History Society. Last year Delhi’s Big Butterfly Count was done on 17 September 2017. This year this count is being done on 23 September 2018.
