Eastern India's largest Open-Air Butterfly Park | 18 Jul 2023

Why in News?

On July 16, 2023, Jabbar Singh, director of Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park (Birsa Zoo), informed that Eastern India's largest Open-Air Butterfly Park will soon be opened to the public at Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park (BBBP).

Key Points:

• The park is built on a vast land of 19 acres in the premises of BBBP just opposite the aquarium. The Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park is about 25 km from Ranchi city, which is also known as Birsa Zoo.
• The development work of the first phase of this park, which has been created to provide entertainment as well as educational value to butterfly lovers, is almost complete. The estimated cost of this park is 2 crore rupees.
• The development works in the first phase include a butterfly conservatory, apart from habitat development such as planting of pollen plants, construction of a walkway to the butterfly park, a pond and an entrance gate. Right now some improvements and other works are going on in the park. More features will be added to the park in the coming phases. It will be opened for public viewing in a month or two.
• Jabbar Singh informed that the park has been developed in a lush green area, which will help in making the visitors aware of the importance of butterflies in ecology. Butterflies have an important role in promoting awareness of the growing need for biodiversity in terrestrial ecosystems. The presence of a good number of butterflies is an indicator of a good natural environment.
• According to wildlife experts, urban areas like Ranchi, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur are polluted by the increasing number of vehicles and industries. The need of the hour is to have thematic parks like the butterfly or ecological parks to reduce the impact of disturbance. The existence of butterflies in the environment as pollinators of plants, food sources for other animals and also plays an important role in scientific discoveries.
• Director Jabbar Singh said that more than 75 species of butterflies are found in Jharkhand. A conducive environment will be created in the park so that butterflies can grow naturally. A covered conservatory has been built in an area of 900 square meters to protect them from birds and any other prey.
• The zoo authority will try to keep most of the species found in Jharkhand such as Twin Coasters, Sergeants, Bush browns, Baronet, Plain Tigers, Lemon Pansy, Common Sailor and others in the park.
• Significantly, the first phase of the park took about six years to complete. The foundation stone of the park was laid by the then chief minister Raghubar Das on June 29, 2017. However, work on the project began three years later in 2020. The implementation of the project was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Spread over an area of 104 hectares in Ranchi's Ormanjhi area, the organic park houses around 1,450 animals of 83 species of mammals, reptiles and birds.