The Roots Of Creativity

We are grateful to GE for their contribution to Agastya’s ecology initiatives and for making this book possible.

We are grateful to GE, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd., M R Rangaswami and others for supporting Agastya’s ecology initiatives.

A butterfly park was created in 2014 for the development of a habitat for different butterfly species within the campus. The name boards with photographs showing the life cycle of some common butterflies were placed at vantage points and near larval host plants for education and awareness. The park enables the visitors including students and teachers to watch, understand and study the behaviors of different species in their natural environment.

Larval host plants comprising of trees, shrubs and herbs were propagated in the park. The Crotolaria sp. plant growing in the park attracts species like Plain Tiger, Striped Tiger, Blue Tiger and Dark Blue Tiger to congregate in large numbers during certain seasons. The Passiflora sp. . creeper attracts female Tawny Coster to lay eggs under the leaves. The Great Egg fly roosts under many shrubs inside the park.

Nectaring Common Silverline and Plumbous Silverlines were seen in the park. The Common Banded Peacock was seen flying and resting under a dense wooded location of the park. Blue Mormons were seen flying around the park. The park also attracts many visitors from the nearby village schools to participate in an outdoor classroom.

During one of my the visits the year 2012, many interesting butterflies were observed in the campus. This led to launching of a documentation project for butterflies to systematically record all the species seen in the campus. Thus, the documentation project was launched in July 2015 and continued till early 2017 covering a total of 15 months. The butterflies observed were noted in a log sheet and photographs were taken.

Many interesting activities like basking, roosting, congregation, mud puddling, mating and, egg laying etc were observed and recorded.

A total of 103 species were observed during the project period.

The family-wise break up of species is as follows: - Hesperiidae (Skippers): 11 - Papilionidae (Swallowtails): 9 - Pieridae (Yellows and Whites): 19 - Lycaenidae (Blues): 34 - Nymphalidae (Brush footed): 30 -Dr. Bhanumathi, Naturalist and environmental educator

Pavitra Vana

When Agastya acquired rocky wasteland in Kuppam in 2000 I had a dream to create an ecological preserve.

Thanks to the work of several committed people, that dream is now a reality, and Agastya has won the AP Green Award for its eco work.

- Ramji Raghavan, Founder and Chairman, Agastya The picture shows campus head Nitin Desai and senior executive Lokanathan recieving the award from Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Shri Chandrababu Naidu.