Coimbatore: With the Southwest monsoon expected to begin in a few days in Tamil Nadu, butterflies that have spent the summer in the Western Ghats have started migrating towards the plains through the Kallar region in Mettupalayam here.
Coimbatore: With the Southwest monsoon expected to begin in a few days in Tamil Nadu, butterflies that have spent the summer in the Western Ghats have started migrating towards the plains through the Kallar region in Mettupalayam here.
In the migration that extends until the end of May, large exodus of Blue Tigers, Common Crows, Double Banded Crows and Dark Blue Tiger butterflies migrate and move from one place to another.
According to a butterfly expert Paavendhan, migration of butterflies occurs twice a year during the monsoons as butterflies fly uphill during the Northeast monsson and downhill during the Southwest monsoon.
"With more number of Common Lime butterflies migrating last year, it is the tigers and the crows that have started moving in larger numbers this year, higher than the previous year", he noted.
Even as Southwest monsoon is yet to hit TN, the onset of the same in Kerala has resulted in the mass migration of butterflies. Butterflies are spotted in large numbers in the Kallar Horticulture Garden at the foothills of the Western Ghats.
Experts have spotted around 199 varieties out of the total 324 butterfly varieties of Tamil Nadu in the Kallar region alone.