Rare view of a species lost for 100 years

When Kushal Choudhury, a lecturer at the Kokrajhar Science College, first saw the stripes on the dark-brown wings of the butterfly, he thought he was dreaming.

Choudhury, on a recent trip to the Chirang Reserve Forest in lower Assam, was looking at the highly endangered Yellow-crested Spangle butterfly (Papilio elephenor), a species which was last seen over 100 years ago.

“My documentation is the first report of this species in Assam after a hundred years and my photograph is the first live photograph in the world other than the specimen kept at the British Museum in London,” Choudhury said.

He will publish his findings in the Journal of Threatened Taxa, considered the Bible of endangered species. “The species is so rare, that it was like a divine experience,” Choudhury added.

This butterfly is endangered worldwide and is included in the Red Data Book of International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Choudhury has been working on butterflies in the Bodo area for the past decade.

Picking up pace

Shillongites will now see their posts being delivered by postmen riding fast Omni trucks and motorbikes.

The General Post Office, Shillong, last week launched motor mail services, which would be a boon to many.

It includes the use of Tata Sumos, mini trucks and motorbikes to deliver mail to people on time.

As part of the scheme, initially 10 motorbikes were distributed to postmen to move in and around Shillong to deliver mail.

More vehicles will be given to postmen in the rural areas of the state, including Garo Hills.

With the launch of the motor mail services, the post office authorities in Shillong are hoping that it would improve the mail delivery system in the state and the people will be served well.

Launching the service, the post master general (Northeast circle), M. Iawphniaw, said it has been introduced to provide regular and prompt services to the state and especially to those people living in rural areas.

“The purpose is to see that there is fast delivery of snail mail in this world of fast communication,” she said.

Stork reality

Footnote

A village of staunch Buddhists is caught in a dilemma of choosing between religion and nature.

Hundreds of storks, which have nested on the sacred pipal tree, have become a threat to the tree’s survival, forcing the villagers to move the forest department for steps to protect both the tree and the storks in Banglung village in Assam’s Karbi Anglong district.

The Buddhist villagers are traditional environmentalists and prefer to live in perfect harmony with nature. Buddhists also worship the pipal tree, as it was under a similar tree that Gautam Buddha attained enlightenment.

In the same village, another 100-year-old sacred tree had been uprooted last year killing about 800 storks nesting on the tree.

“We have already lost one sacred tree and cannot afford to lose another,” said Sushen Shyam, the headman of Banglung village.

An ancient temple is located near the surviving tree where the Buddhist villagers perform rituals regularly.

Shyam said the storks, which survived the mishap on September 20 last year, left a month later but started returning this year.

Several branches of the tree, he said, had dried up because of infection caused by the birds’ presence. “The tree will soon die because of infection and the weight from hundreds of birds nesting on it,” he said.

Shyam said the villagers had thought of chasing the birds away to save the tree but decided not to do so because it went against their religion.