Yeoor - Butterflies by Ajay Ramakrishnan

A cold winter morning, about 7:30 am. You board the TMT bus number 16 from Thane Station West and buy a ticket for its last stop, namely, Patonapada - a small village within the SGNP buffer zone. After some time, the rickety bus enters the national park via the Yeoor gate and runs along a twisting road that becomes increasingly pock-marked with craters as you along, past the larger and highly concretized village of Yeoor, till it finally drops you off at Patonapada

Here you see two smaller roads leading away from the main road. The right hand path would take you, through another small hamlet and a small grassy plateau, deeper into the Thane part of the forest. You take the left hand path, which leads you to a gate and a kuccha trail beyond. You start walking slowly, your eyes fixed not on the trail ahead but on the trees and shrubs on both sides, and even the fallen leaves, looking for butterflies basking in the early morning sunlight

Soon you see a dry stream running along the trail, on your right hand side, its deep bed full of rocks that have been rounded smooth by centuries of monsoon rains. You know that further along the trail is a waterfall pouring into this very stream - but that is not of interest to you in this dry season. After some time, the trail comes down to the same level as the stream. Leaving the main trail, you walk a few steps down to the stream bed where a thin stream of water still flows

Initially you don't see many signs of life. Then you notice a few butterflies flapping down, looking only half awake, and settling down in the fine sand in the stream bed. Some perch on the rocks a few meters upstream or downstream. Others make short flights in the undergrowth on the edge of the stream, not really coming out into the open. Along with the butterflies, you see some moths, big flies, buzzing bees and water striders swimming in the pools on the stream bed

All this while, you have been taking photographs of the butterflies, taking advantage of the sluggishness of these cold-blooded creatures to snap extreme close-ups, even real macros. Now you begin to lose that advantage for as the sun grows warmer, the butterflies become more active. At the same time, you are happy to see more individuals come out of hiding - you get to see more colors and more species. If you're lucky, you can see hundreds of these winged beauties

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This is what my friends and I have been doing this winter, at intervals of 3 weeks or so. Sometimes we joined a larger group led by ace photographer Yuwaraj Gurjar, happy to get his tips on aperture or shutter speed adjustments that would improve our pictures. At other times, we ourselves went in groups of 2 to 5, some armed with very basic equipment and some carrying macro lenses and tripods (and of course showing off our knowledge in front of the newbies)

I have also been trying to identify all the butterflies I have seen and/or photographed. So, in case you are planning a trip yourself, the bellow list would help you identify the ones you spot:

Superfamily Papilionidea
Papilionidae - swallowtail butterflies
Spot Swordtail (Graphium nomius)
Pieridae - yellow and white butterflies
Psyche (Leptosia nina)
Nymphalidae - brush-footed butterflies
Glassy Tiger (Parantica aglea)

Dark Blue Tiger (Tirumala septentrionis)

Blue Tiger (Tirumala limniace)

Plain Tiger (Danaus chrysippus Linnaeus)

Striped Tiger (Danaus genutia Cramer)

Common Indian Crow (Euploea core)

Blue King Crow (Euploea klugii)

Common Bushbrown (Mycalesis perseus)

Commander (Moduza procris)

Chestnut-Streaked Sailer (Neptis jumbah)

Common Sailer (Neptis hylas)

Common Baron (Euthalia aconthea)

Leopard (Phalanta phalantha)

Peacock Pansy (Junonia almana)

Chocolate Pansy (Junonia iphita)

Lemon Pansy (Junonia lemonias)

Danaid Eggfly (Hypolimnas misippus)
Great Eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina)

Lycaenidae - blues, hairstreaks and gossamer-winged butterflies

Angled Pierrot (Caleta caleta)

Striped Pierrot (Tarucus nara)

Dark Grass Blue (Zizeeria karsandra)

Gram Blue (Euchrysops cnejus)

Plains Cupid (Edales pandava)

Pea Blue (Lampides boeticus)

Tailless Lineblue (Prosotas dubiosa)

Common Acacia Blue (Surendra quercetorum)
Common Guava Blue (Virachola isocrates)
Riodinidae - punches & judies
Plum Judy (Abisara echerius)

Superfamily Hesperioidea
Hesperiidae - skipper butterflies
Small Branded Swift (Pelopidas mathias)

Black Angle (Tapena thwaitesi)

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Note that in summer, the spot mentioned above dries out completely and becomes just a sandy path off to the right of the trail. At this time, the attention of the butterfly spotters and photographers shifts to a point further downstream where the trail crosses the by now broad river bed. Instead of crossing it, you turn right, clambering over large and small rocks to reach a point where some pools of water still exist. Pouring some of this water on patches of dry sand creates the ideal "bait" for large and small butterflies looking for some mud puddling opportunities. Sometimes, you may even see hundreds of individuals from different species flocking to the spot. For even better results, you can pour some beer, toddy or buttermilk (no kidding)

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