Butterfly India Meet to be Held in Goa

Written by BHIVA P PARAB

Thursday, 24 September 2009 01:54

t is time for butterfly lovers to rejoice, for the Butterfly India Meet will be held in Goa this year.

The meet, which will be held at Bondla from September 26 to September 30 will have field trips to the forests of Bondla. The programme also includes visits to the forests of Tambdi Surla and Netravali and the forests around the Dudhsagar Waterfall. During the meet various field workers will present their work at the evening session that will be held at the base-camp.
Butterflies are amongst the most beautiful creatures on earth. Goa possesses a great diversity in butterfly species. The butterflies in Goa belong to the Phylum Arthropoda (arthro meaning jointed or segmented and poda meaning feet or appendages) and Order Lepidotera (lepis meaning scale and pteron meaning wing). These insects are pollinating agents, besides they form a part of the food chain components of birds, spiders and other predatory insects.
The Moth Meet will be combined with the Butterfly India Meet and this will prove to be a good opportunity for butterfly and moths lovers of Goa as they will get a common platform to interact with butterfly lovers from all over the country.
“This 9th Annual Meet is set to be unique since it has been planned to combine the Moth Meet with the Butterfly meet. Light-trapping will be done at night to study moths and this event is important since the moth diversity in Goa is virtually unexplored and it is expected to arrive at a fairly comprehensive list for moths of Bondla,” said Mr Parag Rangnekar who is coordinating the meet informed. He further added, “This meet is a good opportunity for the butterfly and moth enthusiasts in Goa to learn from experts in the field.”
“The Ghats in Goa are the confluence of the Northern and the Southern Western Ghats, thus species representative of southern Ghats make their presence felt in Goa. Omkar Dharwadkar and I recently reported three butterflies for Goa hitherto known only to be found in Southern India. More detailed surveys are expected to throw light on more species that have not been reported till now,” Mr Rangnekar said.
“It all begun on October 4, 2001 when Mr Vijay Barve initiated the Butterfly India yahoo group for networking and sharing knowledge between butterfly researchers and enthusiasts. The group has grown and presently has 1064 members. It was during discussions over the e-group that a decision was made to organise the Butterfly India Meet in order to make a transition from the virtual world to the real one and actually meet on the field to share knowledge and experiences. The first meet was held in 2001,” he said
“The e-group has members from various fields, from serious researchers like Krushnamegh Kunte, field workers like Dr Kalesh, Kalluri Subramanian, Amol Patwardhan, Milind Bhakare to nature enthusiasts and wildlife photographers,” he added.

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