HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO BUTTERFLY BIOLOGY, AND HELP PROTECT AND CONSERVE BUTTERFLIES?

We frequently receive queries as to what you—as a citizen and a non-specialist—can do to help this Butterflies of India citizen science project or butterfly conservation in general. Below are some thoughts about what you can do.

If you are not an experienced butterfly-watcher yet but if you have a decent DSLR camera, then contributing your images and other butterfly observations to this website is one of the most effective things that you can do to help the growth of butterfly biology, education and conservation. We will be launching a mobile app in late 2020. You could use that to start monitoring butterflies in your area, which has tremendous conservation and research value. Please follow the Butterflies of India Facebook group for further news on the app when it is launched.

If you are part of a group such as an NGO that could organize any activities, then you could conduct outreach programmes in local schools and colleges, take people on butterfly-watching trails, and spread the message of butterfly conservation. You could also try to work with city officials (e.g., those who are in charge of either public parks or forest lands) to create butterfly-friendly gardens and plant more biodiversity-friendly plants in open spaces. The list of plants on which Indian butterflies feed is given here.

If you are a specialist in some ways: a civil engineer, a forest officer, member of a nature NGO, then email us, we can suggest some more things that you can do to help butterfly conservation, education and outreach.

Everyone can do more, but you can at least start with one of the above suggestions.

Page citation

Anonymous 2024. HOW YOU CAN CONTRIBUTE TO BUTTERFLY BIOLOGY, AND HELP PROTECT AND CONSERVE BUTTERFLIES? . In Kunte, K., S. Sondhi, and P. Roy (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 4.12. Indian Foundation for Butterflies.