Butterflies brought by tsunami threaten Andaman's ecology

SANJIB KUMAR ROY

The terminator

Butterflies in the Andaman archipelago have been facing colonisation. The carrier of the colonists was the 2004 tsunami which brought three foreign species of butterflies to the islands, threatening its fragile ecology.

Of the three species, two, Danias melanipus camorta and Anitilope anomala, are endemic subspecies from the Nicobar group of islands and the third, Precis lemonias lemonias, is from Myanmar.

The Nicobar group of islands are located 270 km away from the Andaman island cluster. Both the groups are divided by the 150 km wide strait called the Ten Degree Channel.

Myanmar is just 193 km away from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The new species are said to have triggered a struggle between themselves and the resident butterflies. Experts say that the accidental visitors are fast superseding the local butterflies. “Some butterflies might have reached the islands in pupa stage,” says T C Khatri, expert on butterflies and the head of Andaman’s jnrm college in Port Blair.

Impact on ecology
The new species share the food habits of the local butterflies. Dominating them, the new entrants prey on the share of food of the natives, resulting in a shortage of food for the latter. As a result, the weak species get pushed back to remote areas. Experts say that if this continues for long they will soon become extinct.

Butterflies are inevitable links in the food chain (see box: Natural role) and experts say that extinction of a species may lead to the extinction of at least 20 other species. Preliminary studies conducted in the region show an alarming increase in the exotic butterflies. There is less significant data on the strength and characters of the new species. “The new species have come with new diseases. This needs to be thoroughly studied and necessary steps be taken,” says Subhasis Ray of Healthy Environment and Less Pollution, an ngo based in the Andamans. There has been significant loss of habitat of butterflies in many islands in the archipelago after the tsunami. Experts point to the need for an extensive survey to appraise the present situation. After the extensive survey conducted by the British commissioner Michael Lloyd Ferrar (1931) there has hardly been any serious attempt to study the butterflies in Andaman.

Ignorance official
The administration in Andaman is clueless about this environmental impact. “We don’t have any report on this. These species might have been here for long, but would have been spotted now,” says S S Choudhuri, principal chief conservator of forests. Some experts say that such colonisation and extinction are natural. Soubadra Devy of the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bangalore says the current situation may not be ecologically disastrous. Environmentalists in Andaman, however, demand a comprehensive study on the impacts of the tsunami on flora and fauna of the islands.

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Butterflies becoming extinct due to poaching for trade

New Delhi, Jun 6: While the death of a tiger or a lion attracts worldwide attention, small winged beauties like butterflies, which are an indespensable pollinator for vital agricultural crops, are becoming extinct unnoticed.

Illegal trade in these small species is as much thriving as in tiger parts and ivory. One butterfly fetches Rs 500 to the poacher.

Thailand is the hub of the international trade in butterflies, which are killed and dried to be used in greeting cards, books and other decorative purposes.

'Once There Was a Purple Butterfly'--a film produced under the United Kingdom Environment Film Fellowship--focusses attention to the threat to survival of these species.

The film made by Sonia Kapur was screened here yesterday on the occasion of the World Environment Day.

Sonia's trail of the butterflies led her first to interiors of Kerala and then to north east, regions which have a large number of people making their living out of killing butterflies.

''I was led on their trail after reading an article about them.

The interior parts of Kerala and areas in the North east were once home to a large variety of butterflies but now out of the 1500 species, about 400 have already become extinct due to large scale poaching for commercial purposes,'' she told UNI.

The trade in butterflies is absolutely illegal both in India and Thailand but it goes on unchecked, which was a great pity, said Sonia.

''During our research, we found that besides poaching, one more cause of threat to their survival was the use of pesticide on plants, she said.

Sonia feels it was high time that the authorities and the civil society in general recognised the importance of the existence of butterflies, without which no foodgrain production was possible as they were the prime pollinators for agricultural crops.

''One should take lesson from the case of America which had to import live butterflies to release them in their environment for acting as pollinators,'' she said.

She said the main aim of her documentary, which she shot within a month, was to shake the government into action to save the species from extinction.

Sonia took the help of various NGOs like the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) and experts in the fieldlike Dr Chandrashekhar of Bangalore in her research for the film.

The film on butterflies is the first wildlife work of Sonia. She has earlier made films on the problem of terrorism in the Nortn east and women undertrials in the Tihar Jail.

Besides Sonia's films, other works produced under the UK Environment fellowship and screened yesterday were ' The Last dance' by Ashima Narain, the Hunted by Jay Mazoomdar, 'Turtle ia Soup' by Kalpna Subramaniam, 'The Silenced Witness' by P Balan and Radha R, 'Diminishing Resources' by Himanshu Malhotra and Sabina Kidwai and 'Leopards in the Lurch' by Gurmeet Sapal.

--- IANS

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