Written by Sarika Baidya and Ritam Dey, Nature Mates – Nature Club, Kalkuta, India (2023 CLP Award-Winners)
It will be a big loss and a matter of shame if we can’t protect Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory from extinction and let our future generation enjoy such beauty of nature – Sarika Baidya
With support from CLP, we have been able to launch the first conservation effort for one of the rarest and least understood butterflies in the world: Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory.
The aptly named Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory – a swallowtail butterfly classifed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List and restricted to a small pocket in the Eaglenest Sanctuary, northeast India © Sarika Baidya
Classified as Endangered, Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory is restricted to a pocket habitat in the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in India and in parts of Bhutan. This protected area is internationally recognised for its rich and threatened biodiversity: it is a well-known Alliance for Zero Extinction site, Important Bird Area and Key Biodiversity Area. Despite being recognised as threatened by habitat loss and illegal trading, there have been no conservation projects to protect this last habitat of Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory in India, until now.
In 2017, we documented several butterflies in Eaglenest, including Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory. At the time, we had very sparse knowledge about its biology. The local community also knew very little about it and had no idea it was at risk of extinction. It became a personal mission to protect the species, learn more about it, and initiate the first community-conservation programme for butterflies in India.
The CLP project team (Sarika far right) at Eaglenest Sanctuary, a protected area in the Himalayan foothills in the northeast Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh – the only known home of Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory in India © Sarika Baidya
A breakthrough
In 2023, after having many grant applications rejected, we finally got much-needed support from the Conservation Leadership Programme (CLP). With the help of a CLP Future Conservationist Award, and in collaboration with Nature Mates – Nature Club, India, Arunachal Pradesh Forest Department and Singchung Bugun Village Community Reserve, we were able to start our mission. It was a dream come true.
To track down this butterfly’s biology, we surveyed 281km of forest, and identified 179 host plants and 674 nectar plants. We documented the first complete lifecycle of Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory in India. We also documented 166 more butterfly species in our study site, many of which are threatened and understudied, proving that Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory can become a flagship species to protect the habitat and conserve the vast biodiversity of the forest.
Transforming hearts and minds
We approached community members, eco-tourism stakeholders, educational sectors and forest officials, sharing our knowledge and encouraging them to protect the butterflies and their habitat.
I was happy to find that they were willing to know more about this hidden world of insects. At first, they were surprised to learn about the importance of butterflies and that they are threatened. As the project progressed, they showed interest in knowing more about the biodiversity in the forest and invested themselves into protecting the habitat to conserve Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory.
As the first year of our project ends, due to our outreach, 62.5% of the local community now know and care about the Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory in Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary. There is still a long journey ahead, but I am proud to see the transformation in this community. People are actively looking for the butterflies. They take pictures and send them to us regularly to help us document them.
Project team members (from left: Anisha Mazumdar and Sarika Baidya) talking with local communities about Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory © Sarika Baidya
Sarika relates a story that captures the transformation they have accomplished in this community:
“I formed a good relationship with the local forest department’s range officer, Yachang Kani. He became a huge supporter of the project.
One morning I got a call from him. I thought it would be just another regular check. But the news I got from him was enough to brighten my day.
He called to inform us that the annual road clearance was approaching and he wanted us to be there to avoid any accidental cutting of the butterfly’s host and nectar plants. We were accompanied by Kani sir and his team of forest staff into our field site where he documented the host and nectar plants for identification. He wanted to make sure not a single plant was cut.
Seeing his enthusiasm satisfied me that we are moving in the right direction. This is the kind of response I have been longing for since I saw the butterfly back in 2017. I finally see a shimmer of hope for the species.
As I continue my journey, I thank CLP for believing in me and supporting me all the way. I wish all the best for 40 years of CLP and hope we can carry on our partnership for a long, long time.”
The CLP team’s fieldwork in Eaglenest Sanctuary in collaboration with the forest department of Arunachal Pradesh has documented the host plants and nectar plants for Ludlow’s Bhutan Glory in this habitat to better understand the species’ biology © Sarika Baidya
Learn more about Sarika and her team’s work in this video: