Blue Duke declared as the State Butterfly of Sikkim

BIJOY GURUNG

GANGTOK,: Chief Minister P.S. Golay, during the World Environment Day celebrations, declared Blue Duke as the State Butterfly of Sikkim on Sunday. The announcement was made at Saramsa Garden near Ranipool during the event organized by the Forest department.

Blue Duke, a native butterfly species of Sikkim, edged past another contender Krishna Peacock to be announced as the State Butterfly of Sikkim. The two butterflies, among the 720-odd butterfly species, had been shortlisted for the State Butterfly nominations.

According to the Forest department, an online voting was conducted between April and September to select the State Butterfly. Among the 4036 votes, 57% of the votes went in favour of Blue Duke while 43% voted for Krishna Peacock.

Similarly, opinions were also sought from the 11-member expert committee constituted by the Forest department for the selection process of the State Butterfly. It was informed that six experts supported Blue Duke while the remaining five experts were in favour of Krishna Peacock.

Nosang M. Limboo, an authority on birds and butterflies of Sikkim, had pressed for State butterfly status to Blue Duke owing to its relevance with the Himalayan State.

“The Blue Duke represents Sikkim with its two unique colours blue representing the sky and white depicting the snow clad mountains of the Himalayas, it is befitting to Sikkim and its unique identity. There can be no other butterfly that can represent Sikkim than the Blue Duke,” said Nosang, who hails from Darap, West Sikkim.

Blue Duke is found at an altitude below 1,500 metres in the Himalayas and is commonly found in places like Pakyong, Passingdong and Hee-Gyathang in Dzongu, Lingee in South Sikkim and Yangsum in West Sikkim and closer to the State capital in places like Tadong and Ranka.

Nosang found the species in 2012, around the area of Nar Bahadur Bhandari Degree College at Tadong, Gangtok. Since then he has approached both the previous and the current State government to recognise the butterfly species as the State butterfly.

Blue Duke which is also called Bassarona durga durga is unique to Sikkim and Eastern Himalayas, first discovered in the State in 1858. Blue Duke falls in the Schedule 2 of Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and is a highly protected species of butterfly in the Himalayas.

Nosang was also felicitated by the Forest department during the World Environment Day programme for his “outstanding contribution and active role” in promoting environment conservation through sustainable practices.

The Chief Minister handed away the citation to Nosang in presence of Forest minister Karma Loday Bhutia, ministers, MLAs and Lok Sabha MP Indra Hang Subba.

During the programme, the Chief Minister also presented a cash award to Dzongu youth Sonam Wangchuk Lepcha for discovering a new butterfly species in 2021. The new butterfly species is called Zographetus dzonguensis and has been named after the place in which it was discovered, Dzongu. It is also known as Chocolate-bordered Flitter.