To look at they are beautiful dainty creatures but when it comes to migrating they are found to travel hundreds of kilometers.
They are
butterflies. Fluttering with colourful, iridescent and velvety wings and forming huge swarms they arrive every December and stay till February in pockets of Vishakhapatnam district in India. This has been happening since a couple of years making environmentalists and nature-lovers suddenly take notice and feel curious as well as happy. Prof. M. Rama Murthy, of the Dolphin Nature Club and the founder member of the Bio-diversity Park of the RCD Government Hospital tells that a recent study has showed that the ‘tiger’ and the ‘crow’ butterflies have a tendency to migrate in large groups. Such migration was noticed to take place from South India’s Western Ghats (coast) to the Eastern Ghats (coast). Such migration has been observed elsewhere, too. Like in Bangalore, Tumkur and Mysore in the State of Karnataka; in Palakkad and Kannur in Kerala State; in Coimbatore, Udhagamandalam, Vellore and Chennai in Tamil Nadu State and Tirupati of Andhra Pradesh. Some wild life sanctuaries are also made home by these migrating butterflies. When the migrating butterflies take a halt they stay for some days and copulate. The life of the butterflies is too short for them to return. It is the newly born butterflies that take the return trip. A combination of climatic conditions,
availability of food and preferences for certain breeding habitats could be cited as the cause of migration. Beside, the rapid growth in population of particular species in particular areas leads to reduction in availability of food and causes butterflies to migrate. The route of migration from the Western to Eastern coasts of Southern India is yet tobe found out. As further studies continue, interesting findings are sure to spring out.