Kerala   

The angels in tiger land

Rare visual: Southern birdwing, biggest butterfly in India.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: For the wildlife enthusiast, the attractions of the Periyar Tiger Reserve (PTR) go beyond the tiger, Asian elephant, leopard, wild dog, gaur, sambar, Nilgiri langur, lion-tailed macaque and giant flying squirrel and the rich birdlife of the 777-square-kilometre sanctuary. The region is home to some of the most spectacular butterflies in the world. More than three-fourths of the total number of 334 species of butterflies so far recorded from South India can be seen there.

Angels in Tigerland, a 35-minute documentary on the butterflies of the Periyar Tiger Reserve, takes the viewer on an exciting excursion to the colourful world of butterflies in the tiger reserve, one of the best protected wildlife sanctuaries in the country. The documentary has won for its director and cameraman, Suresh Elamon, the award for best cinematography at the Fourth CMS Vatavaran Environment and Wildlife Film Festival that concluded in New Delhi recently.

The film, supported with stunning visuals, introduces the viewer to a brief biology of the butterflies, besides capturing the complete metamorphosis of the largest butterfly in India, the Southern birdwing (Troides minos). It also captures various types of predation in the world of butterflies. It has some extra-ordinary close-up visuals of parasitoid larvae emerging out of the live body of a caterpillar and also visuals tracing the relationship between certain ants and the “honeydew”-producing caterpillars of the Lycenidae family.

The film brings out the “mud-puddling” behaviour of butterflies such as blue mormon, cruiser, Malabar raven, spot swordtail, fivebar swordtail and Paris peacock, besides capturing the technique employed by certain butterflies such as Indian fritillary, common Nawab, southern duffer, angled pierrot, yam butterfly and chestnut angel for imbibing nutrients from animal scats. The trick employed by chestnut bob butterfly to suck up nutrients from dry bird droppings is shown with brilliant macro shots.

The film ends with a video footage of the extremely rare and legendary butterfly of the Indian subcontinent Travancore evening brown (Parantirrohea marshalli), which was thought to be extinct for a long time, but was rediscovered from the PTR about 10 years ago. This butterfly is so rare that only a very few people have seen it in the wild. The film not only shows it in its early stages but also its pupation and final emergence as an adult butterfly. Suresh Elamon, writer, naturalist, wildlife photographer and wildlife filmmaker, has been documenting the biodiversity of the Western Ghats for the last 30 years.

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