Butterfly Garden Nashik

Butterfly Garden Nashik

If you are one amongst the growing number of individuals who prefer to take a walk in the natural environs rather than spend your day window shopping in a mall, you must very well know about the butterfly garden in Nashik, located at the foothills of Pandav Leni caves. 

Also know as Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Van Udyan, it was opened in the year 2016 by actor Mr. Nana Patekar and owes its existence to MNS President Mr. Raj Thackeray, who took a keen interest in its development.

It is maintained by the Forest Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited (FDCML) and Nashik Municipal Corporation and was earlier a herb garden. 

A snapshot

Area: 93 hectares (0.93 sq km)
Location: Service Road, Nashik-Mumbai Highway, after Pandav Leni Caves.
Timing: All days 10.00 to 17.30 hours. Closed on Wednesday.
Entry fee: Rs. 30.00 (Adults); Rs. 10.00
Camera charges: Rs.100.00
Best means to reach: Personal transport. City bus services may be available.

Best time to visit: November to February.

Butterflies and birds 

The garden is well maintained and has dense tree cover with a wide variety of flowering plants and grasses ideal for butterflies. Part of the garden has paved pathways; the interior can be explored on mud paths. If you are lucky, you may be able to spot peacocks and other birds. There is also a small lake surrounded by thick undergrowth and large trees with aquatic birds. 

Blue Tiger

Common Tiger

Blue Spotted Crow

Blue Moon

 As always, respect nature and avoid use of plastic and do not litter inside the park.

Nandur Madhmeshwar Bird Sanctuary - Part II

Bird Watching Towers

As mentioned in my earlier post, the bird watching towers offer a good view, but considering how far away they are located from the water body and the islands, spotting of aquatic birds without binoculars or spotting scopes is difficult. Nevertheless, birds such as jacanas and moorhens can be easily be seen from the towers, foraging for food on the densely growing water plants.

 

The vegetation in the vicinity is mainly thorny acacia, interspersed with neem, peepul and other species. These trees alongside the tall grass and reeds form an ideal habitat for all types of terrestrial birds, such as green bee-eaters, weaver birds, munias, prinias, shrikes and the more common doves. One can hear the prinias almost everywhere while exploring the area, although the vegetation makes it difficult to snap a clear picture – if you have a digital camera with a not-so-fast enough processor, although this is quite a simple task with the newer camera or a DSLR.

During the winter months, migratory swallows can be spotted, perched on electricity cables, getting ready to fly back to cooler climes. 

We also spotted a lone red headed ibis foraging for grain seeds, insects and small lizards in the open fields adjoining the lake. 

Farms and Fields

There are farms and fields in close proximity to the sanctuary, planted with various types of vegetables and grains like paddy, chana (chickpeas), wheat, sugarcane, onion, cabbage. Here, one can spot drongos, robins and egrets. Small dhaba-type restaurants near the entry/exit road offer a variety of regional snacks if you are hungry or thirsty after spending the day wandering through the sanctuary.

Time Spent in Nature is Time Well Spent 

For birdwatchers and environmentalists, a visit to the sanctuary is definitely time well-spent.  For city-dwellers who prefer shopping malls to roughing it out in the sanctuary, this is something they must experience to understand and appreciate the wonder of nature.

Avoid Littering

As always, it is expected that as visitors, we do not litter the area and do not throw leftover food stuff in the sanctuary, as this can be detrimental to the local the ecosystem and lead to entry of pests into the area. 

Northern Shoveller: Male and female 

 Pheasant-tailed Jacana

 

Little Brown Dove
Marathi: Parawa
It is small myna-sized bird, slim, brown in colour above, with whitish abdomen. Outer edges of its wings are bluish grey. Below its neck is a pattern of black spots which makes it easy to identify. It is swift in flight with quick and sharp movement of wings. Usually seen in pairs in dry, thorny regions in the vicinity of farm buildings.

 

Eurasian Wigeon
The males have a chestnut head and buff-brown colored forehead, grey body, black tipped wings and  black tail portion. Females are light brown and grey. It is a winter migrant to Northern and Western India (also Africa) from Europe and can be found in wet marsh lands and shallow water bodies.

Cotton Teal (Cotton Pygmy Goose)
This is a resident aquatic species, found all over India. Males have a dark-brown forehead and a black collar at the base of the neck while the back and wings are brown and dark green. Females do not sport dark colours. A feature which differentiates them is dark stripe running through the eyes in females. It is much smaller than the normal ducks.

Cotton teals are among the several species which have shown a very steep decline in numbers due to drastic reduction in wetland habitats and hunting for meat, which is sold as exotic food in road-side dhabas. The others include quails and partridges (teetar-baater). 

To all readers of this blog, it is sincerely appealed that they make all efforts to avoid eating at such dhabas, thus reducing exploitation wildlife for food. Keep in mind that the wildlife is hunted in an extremely cruel manner, using mechanical contraptions and snares that cause untold misery to birds and animals.

Rufuousbacked Shrike
Commonly found all over the country, in dry, open forests, often perched on telephone or electricity cables. It has a grey forehead and a black band running across the eyes and a strong, hooked beak. Abdomen is rust colored (rufous). Both sexes are alike.

Common Swallow / Striated Swallow
Winter visitors to India from the cold European regions.

Green Bee-eater

 

Jungle Myna

  

Purple Moorhen

Thank you for reading. If you need more information, you may add your comments or queries in the section below.

Take nothing but memories, leave nothing but footprints." -Chief Seattle

Nandur Madhmeshwar Bird Sanctuary - Part I

Nandur Madhmeshwar Bird Sanctuary - Location

The sanctuary is located in Niphad taluka of Nashik district at Chapadgaon village and is about 40kms from Nashik city. It is easily accessible by road, preferably using personal transport. As far as my knowledge goes, there is no direct public transportation to the sanctuary. 

How to reach the sanctuary

The easiest route to pick on Google Maps is, Nashik-Nandur-Shilapur-Chanduri naka (take a right turn here), which takes one through Saikheda, continuing onwards to Godanagar-Bhuse.  About half a kilometer from Bhuse, take the dirt road on the left towards the forest department office at Nandur Madhameshwar.

Except for the last part (around 600m), the road is in pretty good shape, lined with rolling green fields and grape orchards on both sides. The farmers appear to be doing quite well, looking at the overall surroundings.

There is city bus service (Nashik Citylinc) route 132, to Saikheda village. From here, shared auto rickshaws are available to reach the sanctuary, a distance of 12km.

Some background about the sanctuary 

The sanctuary was created in 1986 and is essentially a wetland area formed by the backwaters of Nandur Madhameshwar Dam. The International Ramsar Convention on Wetlands declared the wetland as a Ramsar Wetland on January 27, 2020, as it met certain criteria set by the Ramsar Convention. This recognition helps a site gain recognition, boost tourism and receive government funding, ultimately creating an awareness for nature / wetland conservation. 

However, the covid pandemic came along immediately after the declaration, leading to lockdown and closure of the sanctuary till late 2021. Now that it is open for visits, it is expected that the wetland will be truly preserved and improved upon.

So, after a long time during which I had only planned to visit the sanctuary, I was finally able to do so in the last week of February 2022. We drove out early on Saturday and reached around 07.45 hours. There were a few vehicles already parked in the parking lot. After paying the necessary charges (details mentioned below), we set out on the mud pathways. 

Charges
2 wheeler parking: Rs.20.00
4-wheeler parking: Rs.50.00
Entry (Adult): Rs.30.00
Entry (below 12): Rs.15.00
Camera: Rs.100.00

Best time to visit: November to March

The sun was not yet shining brightly, and the temperature was 12℃. The pathways were damp due the surrounding swampy ground and the atmosphere was extremely quiet; all we could here was bird calls around us with faint snatches of some mantras being chanted in one of the nearby villages.

The water body is not seen from the pathway as it is surrounded by an impenetrable wall of tall grasses and reeds, which normally grow on wetlands. The dense undergrowth makes it impossible for anyone to deviate from the pathways. On the other side (away from the waterbody), the forest is chiefly comprised of thorny trees (thorny acacia, gum arabica, babul) interspersed with other species. 

 

Bird watching towers

There are four towers erected for bird watching over the tall grass and provide a view of the lake formed by the backwaters of the dam. The tower furthest from the entrance is always crowded with bird watchers, many of them with tele-zoom cameras and binoculars, as it affords a good view of the lake. For the information of those who do not own binoculars, note that these can be hired from the forest department guards at the entrance for a nominal fee. The sun shone brightly when we reached the tower. In front of us stretched the lake, broken by patches of water hyacinth, reeds and small islands covered with trees and stumps of sunken trees. The tree stumps were ideal perch for the birds to preen themselves or just bask in the sun. The ducks, teals and other waders were wading majestically through the still waters in search of their feed of small fishes and aquatic creatures. In shallower areas, we observed jacanas and moorhens, their long legs and toes easily facilitating movement on the floating aquatic plants.

Small groups of birds took off and arrived constantly, splashing in the water. Frequently, large groups took off suddenly in confusion, with cries of alarm and in a flurry of wings with a whooshing sound, as a marsh harrier flew over them.  

Continued in Part II (will upload soon). Till then, stay safe.