Beauty at the Best

The Butterfly Park at the outskirts of the city near Bannerghatta National Park is an eye has turned to be an eye of the attraction

The sprawling green garden stretched for over 10,000 sp ft at Bannerghatta Biological Park has been a ‘buzz’ in the city attracting hundreds of tourists from foreign countries everyday. The place, which is an abode for Butterflies during the summer to have a sigh of relief to get out the summer heat to take care of the family matters. The park which exclusively meant for Butterflies was inaugurated two years back and has been under huge accolades from all quarters of the state.

The venture that had to fight with many hassles from the administration segment was began initially to see the response of common people and their response towards western culture of gardens meant for all sorts of creatures. Though there were not even hundreds in numbers to watch the butterfly park as it was thrown open for the public during summer season when the butterflies go in search of mates. But the University of Agricultural Sciences came forward with the concept of opening such parks was almost discarded at the legislation. Perhaps, the state government was inclined towards opening an 5 star hotel than investing money on neither the butterfly park nor biological park. A K Verma, Chief Wildlife Warden at Butterfly Park, has to say, ‘We were instructed during the inauguration by the state government authorities that we had to maintain the butterfly park with rapt attention to make it a grant venture at the national level. The investment was huge so everything went well but only the arrival of the season was in the waiting list. As soon the monsoon and winter came in full force it brought with it varieties of butterflies from all corners of the country and abroad. We were happy so also the butterflies.’

The park has so far been a shelter to hundreds of rare breeds of butterflies which are in the list of extinction. The park is serving at its best in saving the rare breed of butterflies that were earlier seen only in glass bottles at experiment labs or in the houses of scientists. One of the employee at the butterfly park opined that though the park has all the necessary infrastructure yet the plants are not of the right selection. Because not all butterflies love to sit on plants which are found at our sewege canals. I think the authorities should change the plants in order to attract more butterflies in the coming season. During summer we haven’t seen butterflies not more than 30 to 35 types of varieties.’

The park is worth to be seen if you are enjoying an holiday during weekends. The lush green garden with maintenance of cleanliness is also an added attraction for nature lovers. Every visitor is instructed to maintain the park instructions before entering to the park which is exclusively reserved and allowed only for tickets which are issued outside the counter. The visitors with valid tickets will be shown a documentary on the butterfly park and the purpose of establishing the park. The show is being implemented in the model of European countries to give it a edgy look in international standards. The screening of the documentary contains the depiction of how the park is maintained, the total number of employees being are at work to keep the park green in all season and so on. It is clearly visible in the direction plates kept at all corners of the park that nobody is allowed to catch butterlies. At any condition if a visitor is being noticed of violating the park instruction then they will be punished with adequate penalties. When asked of maintenance of the park, a garden worker said, ‘The incidents of violating the park strict rules and regulations are rare of a sort. Nobody till to this days such incidents were never reported. But if it takes place then a punishment is always to there to make the right balance.’

The butterfly park has the direction paths at all over the corners of the plants to keep the visitors at bay from touching butterflies. Its only the silence which speaks louder than anything here. Visitors will be provided, on request, with leaflets on butterflies and their history of breeding etc. A counter exclusively meant for any queries is always at the help for visitors to clarify their doubts to get right details. One of the visitor from Australia, Stephen Jones, hinted that ‘such parks like the butterfly park are common in Australia. The one in the city is really deserves a great applause. Some of the rare breed of butterflies are not even found in our country.’
The butterfly park is surely a place worth to visit with your family. Do visit the park at the earliest to see how a wonder of the nature plays with its own beauty.