Telangana to have State butterfly soon

Organisations recommend declaring either Indian Jezebel, Striped Tiger or Banded Peacock as State butterfly

Sangareddy: On the lines of the State bird, tree, flower and animal, Telangana will soon have a designated State butterfly. Efforts towards this have begun recently.

After much effort and deliberations by various organisations, a representation was recently submitted to the Chief Wildlife Warden Telangana Elusing Meru at Aranya Bhavan, requesting him to declare a State butterfly. The organisations have recommended to the Telangana government to declare one of three butterflies – Indian Jezebel, Striped Tiger, or the Banded Peacock – as the State butterfly.

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Singh assured the representatives of organisations that he would take it to the notice of the Ministry of Forests and Environment of Telangana to declare a State butterfly soon. Representatives of the Orugallu Wildlife Society (OWLS), Butterfly Conservation Society (BCS), World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Moth Society, Wild Telangana, and other organisations with the support of some forest officials have put in collective efforts to finalise these three butterflies. A representative of OWLS, Indaram Nageshwar Rao, and BCS representative Devani were among those who met the Chief Wildlife Warden in this regard.

Though nothing has been decided so far, the officials were reportedly considering the Indian Jezebel as the State butterfly.

India has 1,380 varieties of butterfly species while the world has 17,000 butterfly species. Wildlife photographers and Lepidopterists have identified 165 butterflies in Telangana so far. Ten States have declared their State butterflies in India so far. However, the efforts to declare a national butterfly have not yet reached the final stage.

The Indian Jezebel, Krishna Peacock and Orange Oakleaf were in contention for the national butterfly status.