The best way to develop a backyard that draws butterflies? Mumbai-based Priyanka Singh has turned her balcony right into a haven for over 5,000 butterflies to this point. Right here’s the journey that led her to this.
Who doesn’t take pleasure in watching vibrant butterflies in flight? The winged beauties go away anybody fascinated, with youngsters deriving a lot pleasure from chasing them round.
Nevertheless, the very existence of butterflies, at this time, is going through so many threats — together with habitat loss, local weather change, and indiscriminate utilization of pesticides on vegetation. Seen abundantly earlier, their habitat is now sadly confined solely to a couple parks and gardens.
However apparently, within the coronary heart of Mumbai, Priyanka Singh’s condominium has became a haven for a lot of butterfly species — together with the monarch butterfly, widespread jay, lime swallowtail, and uncommon species just like the widespread crow and customary tiger.
Affectionately dubbed the ‘Butterfly Mother’, Priyanka has reworked her balcony right into a paradise, all set as much as entice these winged beauties. Image this: lemon timber, lantana, curry leaves, and West Indian jasmine, all blooming and buzzing with life. These vegetation aren’t only for present – they supply the proper spots for butterflies to put their eggs.
Priyanka believes that eggs face destruction with out the suitable atmosphere for progress. After hatching into caterpillars, they voraciously feed on vegetation till they metamorphose into pupae, finally rising as lovely butterflies. Earlier than chickening out to hunt out new habitats, they’re given respite in spacious jars.
Initially from Varanasi, Priyanka by no means imagined working to guard biodiversity. Nevertheless, when she moved to Mumbai, she was disheartened to witness ecological degradation. Having spent her childhood having fun with the shade of timber, she wished to lift her daughter in an atmosphere nearer to nature. This motivated her to create this natural backyard.
Then at some point, she noticed a small caterpillar consuming a leaf from one in every of her vegetation. And after a number of days, she noticed that this caterpillar had reworked into a wonderful butterfly. After that incident, she turned so keen on butterflies that she began studying about them.
This newfound ardour led her to create a small ecosystem to rear butterflies in her house on the thirteenth flooring. Within the final 10 years, she claims to have nurtured over 5,000 butterflies!
Edited by Pranita Bhat. All photographs: Priyanka Singh.