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The ‘flying jewels’ of CET

It is not just the towering trees or the exotic wildlife that matter. When it comes to conservation biology, the smallest creatures act as the best indicators of the biodiversity and health of an environment. And that is exactly the reason why the students of the Environment Club of College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram (CET) are so euphoric about the health status of their campus’ environment.

In a survey conducted by the CET Environment Club, as many as 40 different species of butterflies were spotted within the 45 hectare campus which was just a stretch of barren land some years ago. These butterfly species, along with their characteristics and photographs, have been chronicled in the Club’s latest book ‘Flying Jewels of Our Campus.’

“This is not even a broad database of all the butterfly species in the campus. The book is based on a qualitative study of the butterflies spotted by us inside the campus during the period of our survey in March 2007. A quantitative analysis of insects like butterflies is very difficult,” said Varun T, a former student and member of CET Environment Club, who passed out of the college this year and is now pursuing MS in Aerospace Engineering at IIT Madras.

Most of the students in the 18-member Environment Club team that carried out the survey have now passed out of the college. Although the fieldwork for ‘Flying Jewels of Our Campus’ was completed around a year back, the release of the book had to wait due to technical reasons. ‘Flying Jewels of Our Campus’ is the third book released by the Environmental Club of CET after ‘Trees of CET’ released in 2002 and ‘Feathered Friends of Our Campus’ in 2007.

Among the butterfly species catalogued in the book are Southern Birdwing – India’s largest butterfly – and Southern Grass Jewel – India’s smallest. “Although we did not spot many rare species, we were really surprised by the diversity of the species within our campus. The Southern Birdwing, for example, falls in the ‘vulnerable’ category and can be seen only in rich, flowery gardens. Some other spectacular species we found were the Swallowtails, Blue Mormon and unpalatable butterflies like the Great Eggfly,” Varun said.

The book also includes information on the basic characteristics, gardening and the food plants of some common butterflies.

Apart from the guidance of Environment Club staff-in-charge Prof. D. Thankamoney, the team members were also assisted by WWF-India education officer A.K. Sivakumar and lepidopterist C. Susanth in compiling the book.

The Environment Club of CET has won many accolades for its activities earlier, including the Vanamithra Award in 2002 and 2007. The Eco Corner, set up by the club in 1986 as a plant nursery, has now grown into a kind of sacred grove with good biodiversity.

Sangeetha Unnithan

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