Open-air Butterfly Park in Birsa Zoo to be opened to public soon: Official

Ranchi: A open-air Butterfly Park, the biggest in Eastern India, will soon be opened to the public at Bhagwan Birsa Biological Park (BBBP) here, a senior zoo official said on Sunday.

The park has been built on a sprawling 19 acres of land, just opposite to the aquariums on the campus of BBBP, which is popularly known as Birsa Zoo, some 25 km from Ranchi city.

Aimed at imparting educational values along with entertainment to butterfly lovers, development work for the first phase has almost been completed at an estimated cost of Rs 2 crore, the official said.

A butterfly conservatory, landscape which includes habitat development such as plantation of nectar plants, construction of a walkway for the butterfly park, a pond and an entrance gate have been developed in the first phase.

"Some beatification and other works are going on right now in the park. It will be opened for public viewing in a month or two," Birsa Zoo director Jabbar Singh told PTI.

He said that the park has been developed on a lush green area, which will help make visitors aware of the importance of butterflies in ecology.

Butterflies have an important role to perform in promoting awareness of the increasingly urgent need for biodiversity in the terrestrial ecosystem. The presence of butterflies in good numbers is an indicator of a perfect natural environment, Singh told PTI.

Wildlife experts said that urban areas such as Ranchi, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur are polluted with an increasing number of vehicles and industries. To reduce the impact of disturbance, thematic garden such as a butterfly or ecological park is the need of the hour.

The existence of butterflies in the environment is mentioned to be pollinators of plants, food sources for other animals and also have an important role in scientific discoveries, they said.

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 could grow naturally.

"A covered conservatory has been built in an area of 900 square metres so that they could be protected from birds and any other prey," he said.

The zoo authority will try to keep most of the species that are found in Jharkhand like twany coaster, sergeant, bush brown, baronet, plain tiger, lemon pansy, common sailor and others in the park.

In the coming phases, more facilities will be added to the park. Currently, pathway and benches have been set up for visitors and more facilities will be provided to the tourists in the coming days. Besides, more nurseries will also be created for butterflies, Singh said.

The first phase of the park took almost six years to complete. The then chief minister Raghubar Das had laid the foundation of the park on June 29, 2017.

However, work on the project started after three years in 2020. The execution of the project further got delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a senior forest official said.

He said that the park is almost ready to open to the public. There will be two entrances--the main entrance towards the Aquarium side and the side entrance towards the guest house side, he said.

At the main entrance, there will be a ticket window kiosk and a preservation room. Annual maintenance of the butterfly park habitat will be around Rs 25 lakh, he said.

Spread over 104 hectares of area in Ranchi's Ormanjhi area, the biological park has about 1,450 animals belonging to 83 species of mammals, reptiles and birds.