India’s butterfly boom: How Nature walks, parks, and trails are sparking a new conservation movement

Rohit Girotra, one of the four founding members of the Bangalore Butterfly Club (BBC), is enamoured by the “beautiful world” of these colourful insects. It is why he began the BBC to introduce other Bengalureans to them and has been helming butterfly walks— guided educational tools that help participants identify, learn more about or simply enjoy butterflies — at the Doresanipalya Forest Research Station off Bannerghatta Road since 2012.

Today, the BBC community is nearly 600 strong, and it continues to grow. “I feel we have been successful in doing this,” says Rohit, who, along with another BBC co-founder, Ashok Sengupta, has recently launched another Nature initiative, Papilio Trails, that offers a butterfly-focused travel experience. “We identified places where we have been that offer amazing butterfly experiences,” he says, listing some of these: Coorg in Karnataka, Upper Siang in Arunachal Pradesh and Garo Hills in Meghalaya.