How chasing butterflies became a weekend hobby

From breakfasts with butterflies to curated walks, people are developing a new interest in these brightly coloured beauties


Anil Kapur is in the shipping business. But in his free time, he chases butterflies at Asola, armed with a book and camera. “They have such bewitching colours that can transform any place,” says Kapur who engaged the community in his Mandakini Enclave neighbourhood in south Delhi to convert a local dumping ground into a butterfly park. “We planted 700 plants in the park in August and now I can already identify 12 different species of butterflies,” says Kapur.

Kapur isn’t the only one showing a renewed interest in the bright winged species that are under threat from rapid urbanisation, increasing temperatures and our fondness for manicured lawns over messy foliage.


Rewild Life Biodiversity Farms, situated just two kilometres off the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway in NCR, has a natural wild appeal that is ideal for butterflies. Spread over 17-acres, it is home to 18 different species of butterflies that attract students from nearby schools and nature lovers during weekends.

It’s quite a sight to spot hordes of plain tigers come fluttering out from flower beds, creating a sort of butterfly rush hour that you walk through. At a short distance is a ‘butterfly pit’ filled with cosmos flowers. Standing atop, all one can see is a cloud of brightly hued butterflies hovering over bright, orange flowers.

“The visual impact of butterflies fluttering around is very calming, like meditation,” says Aamir Ahmed, an ‘environmentalist by experience’, who started the farm two years ago along with a partner. On the outskirts of Thane, Rajendra Ovalekar has turned his farm into a butterfly garden. On Sundays, the naturalist takes visitors around to explain the life cycle of the insects and introduce them to some of the 70 species found there.

A 2015 census revealed that India has 1,500 species of butterflies. But it’s only in the last few years that butterfly farms and gardens are being set up and workshops organised to educate people about the species. Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi released a bag of butterflies in Gujarat on his 69th birthday recently.

In Delhi, Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary is observing September as ‘Delhi Butterfly Month’ and organising a range of activities. Sohail Madan of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) at Asola says 200 people turned up for the ‘breakfast with butterflies’ on September 8. “Public interest has gone up, and the number of people working with butterflies has also increased,” says Madan, who has been organising butterfly counts in Delhi since 2017 in collaboration with the government. Last week, the Madras Naturalists’ Society organised a butterfly walk at a restored wetland now lush with common jays and grass yellows.

Why are people suddenly interested in butterflies? There’s been a growing concern in the past few years over diminishing insect populations. And that they are pretty also helps. Butterflies easily score over other bugs like moths and earthworms in attracting people to their cause. “Butterflies are the tigers of the insect world,” says Arundhati Mhatre who has set up a butterfly habitat on her tiny seventh floor balcony located in Lower Parel, south Mumbai, and helps others do the same. “Butterflies need nectar plants to feed on and host plants to lay eggs on. So, if you put both these in any place, butterflies will come. A friend of mine put up lemon plants, a butterfly host, on her 15th-floor balcony. We were sceptical if they would come at such a height, but they did. They are the best botanists and know more about plants than us,” says Mhatre, who left her full-time engineering job to become a nature educator at a school.

For 25-year-old Chennai-based techie Sharan V, “butterflies are life”. “I started observing and counting butterflies four years ago, and my friends and I have documented more than 200 species in Rajapalayam, my hometown. I have also participated in forest department surveys and butterfly walks conducted across Tamil Nadu and Kerala,” he says.

Savita Bharti, another enthusiast from Lohegaon in Pune, got interested in 2014 when she was fiddling with her new DSLR camera. “I shot a butterfly that was sitting on a pumpkin plant. It had white wings, and as it opened them, they had crimson edges. I later found out it was the crimson tip. This kindled my interest in butterflies,” says the 40-year-old. Last year, Bharti started a WhatsApp group called Pune Butterfly Group with around 60 members where they share info and photographs. “We also started a butterfly count this month and want to document Pune’s diversity.”