Meet Sammilan Shetty, the butterfly-man of Karnataka

Sandhya D'Souza | coastaldigest.com
June 24, 2018

It was a regular Zoology assignment in 2004 that triggered the sudden interest of then student Sammilan Shetty towards butterflies. Fourteen-years since, having quit his fulltime-lectureship post, this 32-year-old has been successfully running Karnataka’s first private butterfly park in coastal district of Dakshina Kannada since 2011.

At the foothills of Western Ghats in Belvai village of Moodbidri taluk, a host of ordinary-looking plants and trees welcome the guests to 'Sammilan Shetty's Butterfly Park'. While walking through the 200 metre stretch of trees like coconut, mango, cashew or curry leaf plants, visitors are asked to delicately examine the top and bottom of these leaves, some of which are nature’s bed for butterfly eggs, larvae, caterpillar, dried shells and so on.

"You don’t need exotic plantation to host butterflies. Regular saplings or even wild plants that you can find in your home backyard would do. But unfortunately, most people uproot them terming it as a weed (unwanted plants). Even my family, was initially reluctant of my passion because I planted them," Shetty says.

Prior to the walk around the butterfly park, the visitors are familiarized with a few names and behaviour-pattern of the butterflies through audio-visual material, so that they can relate the same during their actual encounter with the species in the wild. A 30-minute walk-through this park gives a unique opportunity for the visitors to see the transformation from egg to caterpillar-pupa and the adult butterfly emerging out of it.

While the 'host-plant' is where the butterflies lay their eggs, the male milkweed butterflies suck alkaloid from alkaloid rich plants. "Alkaloids are essential for male milkweed butterflies to attract their female counterparts. Lower the alkaloid, the male butterflies might fail to impress their prospective female-mates," he says.

At this ancestral property spreading over 7.35 acres of semi-forest land, interesting species like, Autumn Leaf (Doleschallia bisaltide), Clipper (Parthenos sylvia),  Tawny Rajah (Charaxes psaphon), Black Rajah (Charaxes solon), Paris Peacock (Papilio paris), Redspot Duke (Dophla evelina), Blue Oakleaf(Kallima horsfieldii), Colour Sergeant (Athyma inara), which are otherwise uncommon, frequent at this open-private conservatory.

For the purpose of the identification of butterflies, Shetty uses The Book of Indian Butterflies by Isaac Kehimkar, whom he considers as his inspiration. Incidentally, the park was also publically opened in 2013 by Isaac - popularly known as the 'Butterfly man of India'.

"Rare butterflies like Blue Nawab (Polyura Schreiber), Orchid Tit (Chliaria othona), Great Evening Brown (Melanitis zitenius), Aberrant Oakblue (Arhopala abseus), Banded Royal (Rachana jalindra) Tamil Oakblue (Arhopala bazaloides) have also been recorded here," Shetty says.  Besides, we have species endemic to Western Ghats like Southern Duffer (Discophora lepida),  Tamil lacewing (Cethosia Nietneri), Malabar Banded Swallowtail( Papilio liomedon), Malabar Banded Peacock (Papilio buddha), a common sight during the season.

Back in 2004, while pursuing his graduation studies for Zoology, Sammilan documented 30 butterflies in the region for his project on the 'Study of local butterflies'. At present the open-house conservatory houses nearly 148 butterflies including rare and indigenous species. This is close to 50 per cent (339) of the species that is found in Western-Ghats. Shetty is particular of keeping the park without closed dome or enclosures, which he says traps them. "We have developed the park by propagating natural greenery with 'native host plants' and nectar plants which attracts butterflies to these parks. We have only created a conducive condition for them and respect the butterfly's freedom to stay or to go," he says.

London based World Book of Records has proposed to honour Shetty in recognition for his conservation of butterflies. Halpe Porus is the latest addition as the 148th butterfly at this park, which incidentally was spotted during course of this interview-walk.

Altogether there are 1,200 species of butterflies in the country, and approximately 320 in Karnataka. "Though the pollination by the butterflies is essential for food chain, no much study is gathered in India over it. Although Indian Foundation for Butterflies (IFB) is leading the way, it may take another 10 years for us to asses if we are truly accommodating the butterflies in our eco system," he says.

While the massive urbanisation and real-estate ventures targeting the secondary-forests, Shetty says, it has led to the decline of wildlife including butterflies due to their habitat loss.

While Maharashtra has taken ‘Blue Mormon’ as its state butterfly in 2015 and Karnataka has declared 'Southern Bird Wing' as its state butterfly in 2017, the butterfly enthusiasts are now batting to have recognition for a national butterfly. Butterfly-conservators feel that the move would not only help in creation of awareness of Butterfly in general, but also in conservation of their population.

The park which is completely funded by the family of Shetty, attracts approximately 800 visitors during the season between June and December. In the process of documenting the butterflies, Shetty has also taken to photography of which he plans to turn into a documentary. "A lot of people have changed the way they look at butterfly, after the educational tour. The idea is to take the message of butterfly conservation and its contribution for crop-cultivation (pollination) to as many people as possible in simple language" he says.

Comments

MK Lobo, Dubai
 - 
Sunday, 24 Jun 2018

Beautiful. Great job by Mr Shetty. Will visit during my next India visit

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Charan Kumar | coastaldigest.com
June 24,2020

Bengaluru, June 24: City-based I Monetary Advisory (IMA), which duped thousands of families, mostly Muslims, in the name of halal investment, has become a bitter reality of "we were robbed by our own people". All the accused except its CEO Mohammad Mansoor Khan have been released on bail in this ponzi scam worth thousands of crores of rupees.

The scam has not only been investigated by SIT and CBI, but it has reverberated many times in the Assembly, corridors of power, and in the courts.

Around 80,000 investors are in trouble after the Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam came to light. Many investors have left this world, many families have split, many marriages have broken down and many have become unemployed, homeless, helpless and hapless. One of the senior IAS office, who had faced arrest in the scam, reportedly killed himself just a day ago.

It has been more than a year since this multi-billion scam came to light. But the affected families still do not see any ray of hope. The government, led by senior IAS officer Harsh Gupta, has set up a special competent authority to address investor grievances in the matter.

According to information provided by Harsh Gupta, investors have to be paid Rs 2,900 crore. But the value of the company's assets seized so far could be around Rs 450 crore. The process of auctioning the assets has not started yet. The authority has developed an online portal for submission of claim forms from investors. But the process of taking applications has not started yet. Syed Gulab, a social worker overseeing the case, says that after all the claim forms have been submitted, we will get a clear picture about the exact number of investors and the total amount of arrears. But this process may take a few more months to complete.

Senior journalist Maqbool Ahmed Siraj says that IMA has systematically deceived people in the name of halal investment through capital scheme. In 2006, Muhammad Mansoor Khan, a one-time small businessman, set up a company. He began to attract large number of investors by creating the greed for more profit among middle class and poor people.

By 2015, the company had received money from more than 12,000 investors and continued to pay monthly profits. By the time the company closed in 2019, 80,000 people had invested their hard-earned money here. In Bengaluru, the company expanded its reach by investing in two major gold showrooms, hospitals, schools, several medical stores, a publishing center, a supermarket, and real estate firm.

Mr Siraj says that Mansoor Khan and his team not only lured the poor and middle class to pursue their own interests but also created a favourable atmosphere for their so called business by winning the hearts of politicians, government officials, clerics, religious institutions and media.

Unsuspecting people invested their money in a bid to make more profit in less time. When the company stopped making profits and Mansoor Khan suddenly fled on June 9, 2019, the investors woke up the to the reality.

Apart from residents of Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, people from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra other states also have invested their money.

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News Network
February 17,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 17: A combative ruling BJP is bracing to face the onslaught of the opposition Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) in the year's first legislature session beginning on Monday.

"We are ready to counter the opposition parties on any issue they want to raise or discuss, keeping in view the spirit of fairness in a democratic set-up, as we have the numbers to provide a stable government," party's state unit spokesman G. Madhusudhana told news agency here.

Ahead of the 3-day session, the BJP's legislature party met here under the leadership of Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to chalk out its strategy to address issues, move bills and present the state budget for fiscal 2020-21.

"We hope the Congress and JD-S members will allow Governor Vajubhai Vala to address the joint session of the legislature on Monday and not disrupt his speech or walkout of the House before he concludes to maintain the dignity of his office," Madhusudhana said after the BJP meeting at a private hotel over dinner.

The legislature will resume the month-long budget session on March 2 with a special discussion for two days on the Constitution, markings the 70th year of its adoption and enforcement.

About 100 legislators, including the three Deputy Chief Ministers, the newly sworn-in cabinet ministers, council members and party's state unit members participated in the 2-hour long meeting.

"Yediyurappa, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will present the state budget for fiscal 2020-21 on March 5, which will be the fifth time as the fourth Chief Minister in over a decade," the official said.

Both the Houses will deliberate on the budget proposals and pass it by March 31.

In the 225-member Assembly, including one nominated, the ruling BJP has 117, opposition Congress 68, Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) 34, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) one, Independents 2 and vacant 2.

Buoyed up by winning 12 of the 15 seats in the December 5 assembly by-elections, the party is confident of passing the finance and other bills, as it has the support of 119 members, including 2 Independents in the lower House.

"There is no threat to our government, which will complete the remaining 3-year term of the Assembly till May 2023. Yediyurappa has already won the majority test on July 29, 2019, three days after he took office for the fourth time," Madhusudhana said.

The Congress, however, asserted that it would raise the alleged misuse of police against the opposition members, anti-CAA protestors and minorities.

"We will question the morality of the government in making a tainted legislator like Anand Singh a forest minister when a dozen illegal mining cases are pending in the courts," a Congress official told news agency.

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News Network
June 12,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 12: All the four candidates, including former prime minister H D Deve Gowda (JDS), and senior Congress leader Mallikarjna Kharge, on Friday were declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka.

Karnataka Assembly Secretary sources here said that all the four candidates, who were in the fray for as many berths, were elected after the last date of withdrawal of candidature ended on Friday.

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