Chandigarh’s butterfly park: A dash of vibrance

The species in the park include the Common Grass Yellow, the Apefly, the Blue Mormon, the Chocolate pansy and Commander, the Common Blue Bottle and Angled Castor etc. Park also has a wide selection of plants and trees, a few of them being Amla, Capris, Ashoka, Citrus Salix,Mango, Palm and Calotrpis etc.

Kulbhushan Kanwar, popularly known as the ‘Butterfly Man’ of Chandigarh, has observed, photographed and created awareness amongst people about various species of butterflies over the past few years. He was also one of the greatest contributors and passionate supporter of the creation of the park while it was in the pipeline.

Kanwar has single-handedly observed around a 100 species of butterflies since the last decade. He loves to spending a good time of his day in different forest areas and parks of the city, capturing photographs of ‘the amazing creatures.’

After studying butterflies from close quarters for a long time and researching about them, Kanwar now possesses specialised knowledge regarding the various species of butterflies, their habitat and their requirements of food and water.  “One of the major objectives of the park is to preserve bio-diversity and making the various plants, trees and the species of butterflies valuable bio-resources. It also aspires to be center for creating awareness for a cleaner eco-system which harmonises the existence of humans and the species of animals and insects,” Kanwar told Chandigarh Newsline.

With widespread pollution and rising global warming all across the world, these kinds of nature parks bring hope to the cause of environmental and ecological preservation.

World Environment Day which is celebrated on June 5 every year, calls for the preservation of the environment and the butterfly park has taken small steps for achieving its objectives and helps people in seeing the beauty of nature in the concrete jungle we have created for ourselves.