The butterfly effect: How science learning has taken wings in India Premium

Citizen science project Butterflies of India engages enthusiasts of all ages, fostering learning and conservation efforts nationwide.

Citizen science is research driven by the participation of students, amateur scientists, and the general public. It involves the collection of data and sharing it with professional scientists. Among the different citizen science projects is Butterflies of India that has garnered a huge interest among urban and rural citizens alike. It has led to thousands of people learning science at a later age.

What starts as a fascination for butterflies soon blossoms into deep science learning. Rajat Joshi says: “My interest in the world of butterflies began with a college assignment. The assignment was to click photos of five butterfly species from the college campus and write a report on them. While everyone others used internet photos, I tried capturing photos of a butterfly that was flying in front of me in the campus. This was my first introduction to the butterfly world.”

What makes butterflies addictive is often their extraordinary diversity. While most people are too busy to notice the winged creatures, once they start to notice, they can’t but fail to notice that even in a small area with a few trees and plants, there are many different types of butterflies -- sizes, shapes and colours.

The participants on nature walks during surveys get a firsthand opportunity to have closer and focused observations. with us, which otherwise they will miss. Once their curiosity is piqued, the experts on the survey who answer their questions trigger the learning curve. For instance, they may observe a bird-catching butterfly or a wasp laying an egg on caterpillars and learn of the food cycle and the food web. Then they relate the changing habitat types, temperature and weather conditions to the butterfly behaviour.

Savita Bharti, a nature enthusiast from Pune who has a masters degree in Environmental Sciences, says: “In 2015 I purchased a DSLR camera for a course. While learning the know how of a camera a butterfly settled on nearby vegetation, slightly opening up the wing. The white and red combination caught my eye, I got one record shot of it. After that day there was no looking back on butterflies. Seniors from the field always helped with queries and their positive responses were always very much encouraging to get deeper into the world of winged beauties.”

Ms. Bharti now coordinates the Indian Butterfly Monitoring Scheme’s (iBMS) activities in Pune. iBMS was launched in 2021 by naturalists, educators and conservationists to understand how butterfly population dynamics change amid the climate crisis and habitat changes. The project that runs in different partis of India is part of a larger project – the Butterflies of India – the first citizen science platform for butterflies in India.

Since its inception in 2009, the website has seen a growing number of contributors. The project mainly aims to document the diversity of butterflies and share information with enthusiastic learners, researchers and policy makers. Thanks to the careful observation and documentation by citizen scientists, more than 15 butterfly species not recorded previously in India were documented.