A new species of Himalayan moth (Eucyclodes gavissima) has been discovered in Papikonda National Park. This was announced by Anant Shankar, Divisional Forest Officer (wildlife), during the valedictory of a three-day workshop on butterflies by AP Forest Department, Wildlife Management, Rajamahendravaram, on Saturday.
He underlined the need for proper identification and documentation followed by awareness among various stakeholders and common public for conservation of wildlife. India has 1,318 known variety of butterflies and most of them still need to be studied further. In the first two days of the field visit, the team identified around 60 varieties of butterflies and 30 species of moths. Chief Conservator of Forests J.S.N. Murthy said that the workshop was organised by Wildlife Management of Forest Department, East Godavari River Estuarine Ecosystem (EGREE) Foundation in collaboration with Butterfly Research Centre, Bhimtal, Uttarakhand. The experts also discussed the measures to be taken up for conservation of butterfly species.
Field visit
Peter Smetacek from Butterfly Research Centre, Uttarakhand, was the main resource person at the meet who delivered many lectures on butterflies and moths and also conducted field visits with the forest staff to study butterflies in the Papikonda National Park and Coring Wildlife Sanctuary.
Activists from Kerala, Karnataka, Lucknow, Kanpur, Kolkata and Visakhapatnam participated in the workshop and delivered lectures on the conservation of butterflies.
