By Matters India Reporter
Miao: The first butterfly meet at Namdapha National Park has drawn 55 environmental enthusiasts from across India.
The April 27-30 meet was organized by the Society for Education and Environmental Development, a local NGO that works closely with the Miao Catholic diocese in Arunachal Pradesh.
Namdapha is the third largest national park in India in terms of area. “But many people do not know about it. Our objectives are to popularize this beautiful place in the eastern Himalayan sub-region, promote its richest bio-diverse nature and discover new species of butterflies from this largest protected biodiversity hotspot,” Minom Pertin, the chief organizer of the event, told Matters India.
The park is in the Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh, near the international border with Myanmar. It spans an area of 1,985 square kilometers.
Flagging off the four-day event, Tage Rumi, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Miao Sub-division, congratulated the organizers and commended their efforts to promote biodiversity and to popularize what he called is the Shangri-la in the eastern most corner of India.
Peter Smetacek, the founder of the Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal, Uttarakhand, addressed the participants prior to the butterfly exploration. “You have come to one of the most bio-diverse region of our country with a very strong possibility of discovering new species of butterflies,” he told them.
The organizers asked Father Felix Anthony of Miao diocese to bless the event. “The butterfly enthusiasts asked me to bless the event even though only a few of them were Christian. I stressed how God created the world and man to safeguard its beauty and what we have made of it due to our selfishness,” the priest told Matters India.
Father Anthony also told them that the thick forest, the sound of the flowing rivers, insects, butterflies and a small group of people in the midst of the woods reminded him about the beginnings of creation. “So, we could start being different and start a new beginning to make this world a better place live in, just like how God wanted us to be,” added the priest, who reached the park after cycling more than 40 km.
He said he spent the night in a tent and cycled back home exploring butterflies along the way.
“The region is very rich in Lepidoptera species. Both butterflies and moths are found in equal abundance here, along with a variety of other insects,” Father Anthony explained.
The Bombay Natural History Society that conducted a national camp in 2014 in the region had observed the presence of many rare species of butterflies such as koh-i-noor, naga treebrown, red caliph, cruiser, wizard, fluffy tit, East Himalayan purple emperor.