Rare butterfly discovered in Arunachal

Discovery of a rare butterfly in Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh has brought smiles to many butterfly lovers and experts in the country.

The discovery was made on Sunday when Kaiser-e-Hind (Teinoplaspus imperialis) was photographed live for the first time in India by Dr Tage Kanno during the two-day Butterfly Meet at Ziro organised by Ngunu Ziro from August 23.

"This species of butterfly has been photographed in Vietnam and Thailand but no live image has ever been photographed in India," Kanno said.

Recently, a dead specimen was photographed in Sikkim and half-dead one photographed in Manipur, but this is for the first time that a living butterfly has been photographed.

 
In addition, this is for the first photographic proof that this rare specimen exists in Arunachal Pradesh, he said.

Monsoon Jyoti Gogoi, who participated in Butterfly Meet as an expert, said this is a historic event.
He further said that the species was common locally 60 years back in Cherrapunji, but was no longer seen due to habitat loss and export of the specimen for business purposes by the experts.

The specimen, he said, was also common a hundred years back in Manipur.

NgunuZiro is a community-based organisation working for sustainable development of the area.
With this objective, it has been promoting and encouraging responsible tourism at Ziro.

It was with the objective to create environmental awareness that the two-day Butterfly Meet was organised on August 23 and 24 last.

Home to over 200 species butterflies of rare and exotic varieties, more than 20 new species were discovered in the state in the last one decade.

Some of the rare butterflies discovered at Eaglenest Bird Sanctuary in East Kameng district include, Bhutan Glory, Grey Admiral, Scarce Red-Forester, Dusky Labyrinth, Tigerbrown, Jungle-queen sp, White-edged Bush-Brown, and White Owl.