Butterflies are the soldiers of our environment, says says Chandigarh's butterfly man

CHANDIGARH: City based 'Butterfly Man', Kulbhushan Kanwar, wasn't always into butterflies, as many would expect. Infact, his love and "madness" towards them, as he likes to call it began with an accident that left him guilt ridden and consumed with the passion of discovering and photographing butterflies. "One day back in 2007, my son called me to say that he is leaving his then job and would begin working for an American Company named 'Caterpillar'. Being touched by curiosity, I Googled about his company and found out that on their website were images of tiny 'Caterpillars'. I was overwhelmed with remorse, because just a few days back then, in order to make my Lemon tree healthy and fruit giving, I had killed and exterminated similar looking butterfly 'larva' that was laid onto the tree's bark with the help of pesticides. I felt that I had destroyed a blooming colony of beautiful creatures," said Kanwar, with a deadpan look.

Hence, ever since, there was no looking back for Kanwar, who with a mission to educate, breed and protect butterflies in the city, has been documenting new and rare species of butterflies from the city for ten years.

Kanwar, since 2007 has single-handedly discovered and photographed over hundred species of butterflies, while the count of the total number of known species with the Forest Department back in 2007 were just sixty-two.


When he received a proposal from UT Forest Department of creating a Butterfly Park in Sector 26, Kanwar supported it wholeheartedly, despite widespread opposition. "A lot of officials had said that this is not the appropriate place for a butterfly park. But I told them, that this is close to the Sector 26 Grain Market, which means that the availability of rotten and over-ripe fruit is immense. Secondly, this is also close to lake for moisture and the forest area, so this place is ideal," he said.

Kanwar spends two-three hours daily in various forests and parks of the city photographing butterflies. Kanwar, after studying them for over ten years now claims to have understood their food sources, climatic requirements and behaviour and has transformed the Butterfly Park accordingly. "It is a popular myth that butterflies only suck nectar out of flowers, but this is completely untrue. Many of them never sit on flowers in their entire life span. There main sources of food are flower nectar, rotten/ overripe fruits, bird droppings, dead animals and damp patches," he said.

In order to attract more and more butterflies to the park, Kanwar keeps experimenting with different things, which have yielded great results. in the park you can see packets full of sugar, dissolved in water hanging at various points. Rotten and overripe fruits are also kept in shallow plates in light, butterfly friendly colours to attract them. Moreover, a sand bed has been made which is sprinkled in animal urine, animal dunk , beer (alcohol) and bird droppings as well, which has successfully attracted many rare species of butterflies to the park which were never seen before namely Black Raja, Blue Admiral, Spangle, Commander, Common Gesture, Vagrant among others. Waterfalls in the park have also been created for moisture.

Kanwar, advises the Chandigarh Forest Department on various matters and works closely connected with many environment groups. He also delivers lectures on birds and butterflies of Chandigarh in schools and colleges.

"Study suggests that more than 70 percent pollination happens due to butterflies and bees. Hence, they are essential for our ecosystem. However, since 2007, due to pollution, even though the species of butterflies have increased, their population has decreased," added Kanwar