Naturalists Arun Urs and Namratha Urs with Professors and students of Maharaja’s College, Yuvaraja’s College and JSS College during the butterfly walk around Lalitha Mahal Hotel area recently.

Butterflies play an important role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem and are the second largest pollinators after bees. They are also bio-indicators, that is the health of the environment can be assessed by their presence.

Husband-wife duo Arun Urs and Namratha Urs, Naturalists with an interest in Lepidoptera, have been conducting fortnightly butterfly surveys around Lalitha Mahal Palace area for the past 10-15 years and they have come across some amazing discoveries.

Around 195 species of butterflies have been recorded till date, out of which 165 species are residents of Mysuru and the rest are migratory.

India’s largest butterfly and also Karnataka’s State Butterfly, Sahyadri Birdwing, with a wingspan ranging from 140 mm to 190 mm, is found in and around the Lalitha Mahal Palace area.

The smallest butterfly of India, Orange Spotted Grass Jewel, with a wingspan of 10-15 mm, is also found here. Butterfly Monitoring is the systematic recording of butterfly population in a particular habitat over a period of time. To achieve this tracking, various methods are used.

Two most popular procedures are the line transect count and the time-constrained count. In the line transect method, a person walks along a fixed length route (usually along a straight line of about 1 km) at a uniform pace. The butterflies are identified and recorded along this path. It usually takes around 45 to 60 minutes to cover this route. Whereas in a time-constrained count method, an observer identifies and documents the butterflies while walking along a wandering path for a fixed period of time (15 mins to 30 mins).

Using these two methods, counting can be done once in a week, fortnight or a month. Monitoring is usually done to track trends in the general butterfly community or targeted tracking of species which are nearing threatened status.

In this interesting study, Arun and Namratha were accompanied by the students and professors of Maharaja’s College, Yuvaraja’s College and JSS College on some of these butterfly walks. Working professionals, nature lovers and home-makers also participate in these walks.

National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) — Tata Institute of Fundamental Research — located in Bengaluru, launched the Indian Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (iBMS) in 2021. The Mysuru Chapter of iBMS was launched on Sept. 10, 2023 at Lalitha Mahal Palace Grounds by Dr. Krushnamegh Kunte, Associate Professor, NCBS.

Arun and Namratha are the Co-ordinators for Mysuru Chapter of iBMS. The scientific goal of iBMS is to understand the long-term trends in butterfly population dynamics in the face of changing climate, habitats and land-use practices. iBMS also trains and leads a network of students, citizen groups and scientists across the country to monitor butterflies in their neighbourhoods.

The data recorded during butterfly monitoring programme over the years helps in estimating the population, diversity and conservation status of butterfly species in a specific domain. It also indicates the impact of habitat fragmentation and climate change.

Habitat fragmentation caused by human activities like deforestation, urbanisation and road construction leads to decline and eventually to the extinction of species.

Decline in the population of butterflies can be a warning to an impending environmental calamity. Thus, conservation of a habitat is important for the growth of butterflies and maintaining a healthy ecosystem.

—SOM News Network