A Sad Story: Destruction Of Another Forest Zone Of Interest: Please Forward This To Your Friends To Raise Awareness

A Sad Story: Destruction Of Another Forest Zone Of Interest: Please Forward This To Your Friends To Raise Awareness

From Balakrishnan Valappil <balakrishnan_ valappil@yahoo.com>

To Yahoo Hope Thane Group Members and butterflyindia@yahoogroups.com

Hi friends

Palaparamba is a typical hill top near my house, just five minutes walk away! It is above 400 ft from MSL and around 40 km from the west coast and the same distance away from Western Ghats. It is a private land of extend less than 2 hectares; there are cashew nut plants amidst open and bushy land the flora and fauna diversity is very interesting, especially insects. I am a regular visitor here since the last three years. Apart from the common butterflies I have sighted are Silver streaked blue ciliate, blue and redspot (M&F) here regularly and I haven’t seen these butterflies elsewhere. Some of other species to be mentioned are Buddha peacock, Short banded sailor, Chestnut steaked sailor, Blue admiral, Southern birdwing, and at least three types of lineblues, blackvein, sergeant, peacock royal, WC and Manytailed oakblue, White banded owl and a Common tinsel (to be confirmed). I will be posting a complete checklist soon; the most interesting thing is that I have seen fresh specimens of all the butterflies mentioned and hence could be assumed that they are born here. A ciliate blue sighting chance is 75% on anyday on the calendar. Between August and December I can guarantee the sighting of Blue admiral, WC oakblue, Buddha peacock and all the three sailors here are high.

But the most saddening part of the story is that as many of the hundreds of such hilltops in our district Palaparamba is also under threat an approach road is already constructed and surveying and markings are in progress to convert it into a housing project and within a couple of years the fauna and flora will be lost forever. In Kerala, majority of insects breed in such pristine locations which are basically private lands and were of no economical importance till a couple of years ago and they were safe to some extent due to that matter of fact that now laterite quarrying, housing projects, other institutions like hospitals, schools, colleges, IT parks are built in lieu of wonderful fauna and flora. There is considerable awareness and conservation on the part of wildlife in the forested lands but as far as I know there is nothing done to protect these uncared biodiversity. My question to the members from Kerala is how often you have sighted Ciliate blue, Redspot and Silver streak blue in the reserve forests? (Dr Unni, Dr Kalesh, Rafeek and others please respond) the answers will decide the importance of the matter. Not square kilometers but square meters that matter as far as butterflies are concerned. Can anyone help tracing the larva plant and hence larvae of the above mentioned butterflies?

Attached pictures are shots from a recent visit to Palaparamba.

Help ID the Line blue other butterfly links on my stream all from Palaparamba peacock royal

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 760342851/budha peacock

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1490190054/Imperial

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 2552726909/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 2552727017/manytailedoakblue

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1797804209/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1797794137/redspot

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1523117205/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1616548060/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 746904897/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 746904909/silverstreak blue

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 693955223/wcoakblue

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1690054061/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 693955247/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1467545259/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 2043427250/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 2181671183/commonleopard

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1672597594/blue admiral

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1025754644/lascar

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1050426385/yeomon and rustic

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 630223807/jezebel

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1797941929/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1797941921/birdwing

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 1345924306/

Some other insects sighted on June 22, 2008

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 2614605753/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 2615431184/ hitlerbugsmating

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 2614601629/

http://www.flickr. com/photos/ balakrishnan_ valappil/ 2614601851/

All these links are to demonstrate the biodiversity of Palaparamba

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Regards

Rajesh Sachdev

Wild Mumbai Nature Conservation

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"The tiger cannot be preserved in isolation. It is at the apex of a

large and complex biotope. Its habitat, threatened by human intrusion,

commercial forestry, and cattle grazing, must first be made

inviolate." - Mrs. Indira Gandhi