Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Cry of the Travancore evening brown

SHRINKING HABITAT: These butterflies prefer to rest on thick reed forests and on beds of dry leaves.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Developing tourism in the Ponmudi-Kallar area is putting pressure on the habitats of Travancore evening brown butterflies, endemic to the Western Ghats, a study by three nature lovers says.

C. Susanth, B.V. Premkrishnan and R. Murukesh are continuing the study, which began on April 9, 2005.

Mr. Susanth told The Hindu here that tourists often cleared reed undergrowth in the area. Mining of sand from small forest streams also contributed to the depletion of the habitat.

"These butterflies prefer to rest on thick reed forests and on beds of dry leaves. If the loss of habitat continues at the current rate, they may soon enter the list of endangered species. On one occasion, we spotted a female Travancore evening brown just five feet away from the Kallar-Ponmudi road that sees heavy vehicular traffic in the tourist season. This shows that the butterflies are desperately trying to adapt to a shrinking habitat. Literature on these butterflies says that they are seen only deep inside forests," he said.

The butterflies have been spotted in the Neelikkal-Pathrakadavu area also. If a hydroelectric dam comes up at Pathrakadavu as proposed, a large part of their habitat will be destroyed.

The study team selected patches of forests for daily survey and spent three hours in the morning and two in the evening to spot the butterflies. An interim study report says that their flying pattern is different from that of other evening brown butterflies. The wing beats of the former are not so fast, but they can fly or spend more time in the air than others.

Each of them tends to fly within its territory. While the males spend most of their time in higher perches, the females are found mostly in perches closer to the ground.

The largest number of sightings was in March and April. On March 28, 2006, five were spotted in the Ponmudi-Kallar area.

The report says more female butterflies were sighted than males.

G. Mahadevan

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