Nature’s early warning system

Butterfly species need to be conserved in real landscapes, not only because they deserve it in their own right but also because of their usefulness as sensitive indicators of environmental change and as an umbrella species whose targeted conservation benefits wider communities of lesser-known, threatened species.

 

A flutter of mostly lime swallotails.

Evergreen forests are restricted to small patches in a few high-altitude areas of Sathyamangalam. The vegetation in the middle altitude slope comprises mixed and dry deciduous forests, while the foothills have thorn forests.

Yellow Pansy.

Yellow pansy.

African babul blue.

Anomalous nawab.

Baronet.

Blue pansy.

Chocolate pansy.

Club beak.

Common banded peacock.

Common emigrant.

Common evening brown.

Common Jezebel.

Common leopard.

Common wanderer.

Common four ring.

Common grass yellow.

Common gull.

Crimson rose.

Crimson tip.

Double-branded crow.

Gram blue.

Great orange-tip.

Great eggfly.

Indian sunbeam.

Blue Mormon swallowtail.

Common castor.

Common baron.

Grass demon.

Oriental straight swift.

Peacock pansy.

Plain tiger.

Zebra blue.

Common palmfly.

Lemon pansy.

Lesser grass blue.

Indian palm bob.

A stream inside the Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve, Erode district, Tamil Nadu.

The Sathyamangalam forests act as a corridor in the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve between the Western and Eastern Ghats.

Small Cupid.

Small grass jewel.

Small orange-tip.

Tawny coster.

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A kaleidoscope of blue tiger butterflies.