**Black Rajah**
It is against this backdrop that a new endeavour takes flight. The *Edutainment Biodiversity Flashcard Series*, created by the Grandala Enviro Foundation (a not-for-profit founded in Mumbai in 2024) and developed under the aegis of SPROUTS — a 30-year-old Mumbai-based environmental consulting and eco-tourism organisation founded by wildlife biologist Anand Pendharkar — aims to achieve what even the most exhaustive guides sometimes struggle with: stripping the science of its jargon and placing butterflies (and other taxa) in the palm of your hand, as play.
Each set of 40 flashcards is designed like a mini-lesson: sharp facts and context on one side, amazement on the other, with games, quizzes, art prompts, and small observation exercises that can be tried within city limits. Unlike thick field manuals, these cards invite teachers, parents, and students (especially homeschoolers and self-paced learners of all ages) to approach biodiversity with curiosity rather than caution.
The idea is simple: reduce myths, replace fear with fascination, and nurture affection for creatures that are as much at home in Mumbai’s traffic islands as in the forests of the Western Ghats, Himalayas, Northeast India, and Andaman Islands.
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**Butterflies and Their Habitats**
Butterflies are inseparable from the habitats they occupy — wetlands, mangroves, scrublands, and grasslands — each of which hosts its own palette of wings. In Western India, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, with its lush forested expanse, is home to more than 170 species, while the coastal mangroves around Sewri and Airoli sustain more delicate populations adapted to brackish ecosystems.
These landscapes in and around Mumbai echo the diversity seen across the country, underscoring that the joy of spotting butterflies is also a quiet lesson in protecting the environments they depend on.
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**The Art of Survival: Mimicry and Camouflage**
The flashcards don’t just stop at colour and form — they also reveal how butterflies survive by trickery. From looking like a dead leaf to flashing oversized eyes, butterflies have survived by fooling predators with mimicry and camouflage.
– The Orange Oakleaf folds its wings to resemble dead foliage.
– Lycaenids carry false antennae near their hind wings to confuse predators about the location of their heads.
– Female Common Mormons go further, assuming the colour and pattern of the unpalatable Crimson and Common Rose butterflies — a textbook case of Batesian mimicry.
– Sometimes, multiple toxic species share the same warning signals, as seen in groups of Rose butterflies, reinforcing their “do not touch” message.
Whether it’s cryptic colouring, false eyespots, or full-blown impersonation, these designs all work towards the same goal: keeping the butterfly, its caterpillars, and chrysalis alive long enough to carry its genes forward.
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**Butterfly Gardening: Nurturing Nature at Home**
If mimicry is nature’s strategy, gardening is ours. Creating spaces that cater to a butterfly’s full life cycle — nectar plants for adults, host plants for caterpillars, puddles for minerals, and sunny corners for basking — is at the heart of butterfly gardening.
Hardy plants such as Ixora, Lantana, Heliotrope, Cassia, Mussaenda, and Zinnia are irresistible to many butterfly species, while curry leaf, castor, and Crotalaria serve as nurseries for caterpillars.
As series concept designer Anand Pendharkar notes, “Every balcony or backyard can become a patch of wilderness, a corridor where butterflies find food and shelter. Butterflies are critical pollinators who are getting lost due to urbanisation and household pesticides, and we want to bring these beauties back within our mindset.”
The flashcards complement this practice by turning plant-butterfly linkages into simple cues, nudging people to see gardening not just as ornamentation but as a way of replenishing the city’s flying colours.
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**Where to Spot Butterflies**
If you start in Mumbai, then the Maharashtra Nature Park in Dharavi (Mahim) or Ovalekar Wadi in Thane are already weekend pilgrimages for families chasing the quick flutter of wings.
Step outside the city and the trail widens to:
– Bannerghatta in Bangalore
– Srirangam in Tamil Nadu
– Asola Bhatti in Delhi
Each is a pocket of astonishing diversity in a country that hosts nearly 1,500 of the world’s 17,500 butterfly species.
Add to that the quieter treasures such as:
– A butterfly museum tucked into Shillong
– Peter Smetacek’s painstakingly built collection in Sattal
– A research café in Bhimtal
It is this spread of colour, from Mumbai’s gullies to far-flung corners of India, that the new flashcard series tries to capture, turning the country’s butterfly wealth into something children and adults can hold, swap, and learn from.
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**The Flashcard Series: Bringing Butterflies to Your Fingertips**
To make this trail of wings easier to hold in your hands, SPROUTS (@sproutsoutdoors) has put together its very first set of 40 edutainment flashcards on the *Butterflies of India*.
Timed with Big Butterfly Month, the pack showcases over 100 species from India and beyond — a mix of life cycles, habits, diets, and quirky facts.
The set is priced at ₹700 (₹600 for early birds until October 22, plus ₹100 per set for shipping), with pre-orders open. It is also being pitched as a Diwali gift — the sort that delights children while slipping in knowledge.
Led by Anand Pendharkar and backed by a crew of naturalists, educators, illustrators, photographers, and conservation practitioners, SPROUTS sees this as the start of a longer series.
The next set of flashcards will focus on snakes, spiders, trees, amphibians, odonates, marine creatures, and many more — expanding the idea beyond butterflies into other corners of India’s natural heritage.
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**Conclusion**
The series gives a new dimension to outdoor education for both educators and learners. By turning biodiversity into an interactive, accessible format, it hopes to foster a deeper connection with nature — starting right from our balconies and backyards.
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*Did you know?*
Sanjay Gandhi National Park is home to over **170 butterfly species**, showcasing the rich biodiversity present even within urban landscapes.
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*Photos featured:*
– Painted Lady (*Pic: Pranad Patil*)
– Archeduke (*Pic: Anand Pendharkar*)
– Aerial view of the butterfly garden created by WildTales in Gandhisagar Wildlife Sanctuary, Madhya Pradesh
– Purple and white varieties of Vervain (*Verbena* sp) in the garden, highlighting plants crucial for butterfly gardening
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*Start your butterfly journey today — bring nature closer with the Edutainment Biodiversity Flashcard Series!*
https://www.mid-day.com/news/opinion/article/winged-myths-pocket-truths-23597258