Nature and people stories from India

This article was written by me for a magazine ONE OF the most miraculous sights in nature is the lifecycle of the butterfly — it goes through a complete metamorphosis as it passes through four distinct stages: egg, caterpillar, pupa and adult butterfly. Let me share my own experience with rearing butterflies on my window sill. About four years ago, someone gifted me a pupa of the Red Pierrot butterfly. A pupa is that stage in the lifecycle of a butterfly after which the adult emerges. As I watched the pupa, one day at a time, the wait was agonising. Eventually, on day nine, its colour changed from white to black and I knew the birth was near. I checked on it several times that night, with no luck! By morning, the pupa was transparent and the colours of its wings were visible. At noon, the pupal case burst open and out crawled the beauty, struggling to find its feet. It had two black forewings and two red hind wings on the upper side, while the underside was white with black dots; a b

A camp to Andamans was conducted by SPROUTS from 20th Dec 2007 to 6th Jan 2008. We were 11 of us, right from a 10 year old to 60 year olds, people from diverse backgrounds & varied interests, but all sharing one common love - NATURE. We flew from Mumbai to Chennai, spent a day there & then flew out to Port Blair. The tour lasted 18 days in all. In the 18 days' tour, we covered as much as we could- North Andamans, Middle Andamans & Little Andaman. The Andaman & Nicobar are an archipelago of 572 islands of which 36 are inhabited. They are known for thei tropical rainforests. Forest types include tropical evergreen, moist deciduous, littoral & mangrove forests. Geographic isolation has resulted in a high degree of endemism i.e. speices of biodiversity which can only be found here. The beaches are pristine, the colors of Andamans as I like to call them visible everywhere, in the sky as well as in water. Snorkelling was an unforgettbale experience for all of