The Butterfly Effect

A Blue Tiger Butterfly

Butterfly is the last word comes in mind while walking through the congested roads of Sodhpur, an industrial suburb near Kolkata at North 24 Pargana. The loud honking of trucks, narrow, stinking lanes and the polluted air, rather denies every existence of greenery or nature. But once enter the house of Somnath Pal Das the feeling evaporates instantly. The 35 year old power plant engineer has transformed the 600 Sq Ft free space in front of his house into a garden, where 58 species of butterflies live as permanent residents.

Along with the ‘Butterfly Garden’, Somnath runs a Caterpillar Rescue and Rehab Centre and a consultancy that provides guidance to the nature lovers to establish butterfly garden on the heart of the polluted city, which is a wonder in itself.  Somnath is not the only one though, 35 year old Arjan Basu Roy, a printing engineer and the founder of Nature Mates-Nature Club NGO has been doing the same for last 4 years in different parts of West Bengal.

Being extremely pollution sensitive, butterflies have died out from most part of the city, mostly due to collision with high speed cars and radio waves generated by mobile towers. Even in rural areas their numbers are fast decreasing for extensive use of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. And to address this problem few nature lovers in the city have shown a unique solution for these insects to grow and live by making natural ‘pockets’ and named them as Butterfly Garden.

Somnath with a Common Mormon Butterfly

The conventional idea of gardening simply doesn’t work when it comes to butterfly garden. It is not about stuffing ornamental plants to enhance the beauty of the garden whimsically. Rather the importance is given to the plants that produce more nectar and host butterflies. “The main aim is to create a proper ecosystem, and once that is properly established, butterflies would come automatically and enhance the beauty of your garden free of coast”, Somnath Says humorously.

Infact, Somnath has a very interesting story to share about the migration of butterflies in his garden. One day, while in office, his wife called and described about the sighting of a unique butterfly she had never seen. Hearing the description Somnath asked her to take some picture and mail him at once. He was stunt by the photos he received in next few hours. “It was a Gaudy Baron, a species of North Bengal and extremely hard, if not impossible, to find in Kolkata. And surprisingly it stayed for few days in the garden”, Somnath says. And after few months, after the first one left, two more female Goudy Barons came to his garden and spent few days.

Once enter the tiny garden of Somnath- the serene green sight with unusual number of butterflies flattering around- it becomes clear why those Gaudy Barons spent days here. Walking through the earthen path in the garden Somnath says “I have hardly spent Rs 600 on my garden; everything is here either collected or bought in extremely low coast.” And it was a truth; the plants that made the bushes are all locals gathered from wild bushes or by the sides of rail tracks, and to form a ‘natural ecosystem’ expensive pesticides or fertilizer have no use here

Common Leopard Butterfly 

At the end of the garden the 8ft/10ft room that Somnath calls his ‘Lab’- where he breeds and raises butterfly pupa- is equally inexpensive. Walls are covered with metal racks, most of them containing rows of plastic boxes having larvae and pupas of butterflies in them; others are stacked with books and files. Where at a corner, between two metal racks a dozen of saplings are kept, roots are wrapped with polythene with mound of soil in them, waiting to be planted or distributed.

Sitting on a wooden chair, in his lab, at one side of a wooden desk Somnath explains “Planting random decorative plants would not help at all.”  The requirement of plants depends on the research, before making a garden, on the native butterflies and their host plants. Arjan Basu Roy, who has created butterfly garden named Banabitan at Salt Lake Central Park, agrees with Somnath when he says “The proper placement of plant is equally important. There are few plants in which butterflies lay eggs and there are plants that provide food for them. So, it is absolutely necessary to plant all the variety to help these beauties complete their life cycle.”

And, in order to do so, the native plants are the only option. “The butterflies that would come to live in the newly established garden would be local and they wouldn’t do so if the plants are alien in nature. So, these plants should be given the utmost importance”, Somnath explains, by pointing at the soil moulded plants kept at the corner of the room, “And it can be done in any amount of space, be it is a three Sq Foot balcony or a one acre land”, says he.

Rescued Plain Tiger Caterpillar's Pupa

The rushed entrance of Somnath’s 5 year old son in the lab, for a sudden tweet from the garden,  put an abrupt halt to the conversation. “Baba! The Rackettail Drondo has returned!”, the alarming voice of the of the child made Somnath rush out of the room to the garden to shoo away the zed black bird, slightly bigger than a sparrow. “This one ate all the caterpillars of Blue Tiger (a specie of butterfly) few days back”, Somnath says worriedly, on his way back to the lab, in a grumpy expression.

“See! This is the beauty of the butterfly garden! Being at the bottom of the food chain it attracts many predators. And in this way you are attracting many other insects, animal and birds”, Somnath informs. Who believes this is the best way to conserve not only butterflies, but also many other insects and birds. Currently there are 23 species of spider and 10 different species of birds in his garden. “95% of total wild life fund of the country is mainly used for large animals like tiger, rino and elephant. But no one thinks about the grassroots level conservation”, informs Arjan, who hopes to turn Kolkata in to ‘city of butterflies’ by 2015.

Even though there are butterfly gardens in many other countries around the world but all of them either into cage or glass doom. But Nature lovers like Arjan and Somnath promotes the idea of open air butterfly gardening. Even though the death of each insect by predators hurts them like anything, they seem to sustain the pain for a greater good. “A butterfly garden should be a complete biodiversity garden”, informs Arjan.

The grassroots level conservation, according to Arjan, is the best way to protect the wildlife. In this system any person can directly contribute to the conservation. It is hardly possible for any urban person to go to Sundarban and work for the conservation of the tiger, “But here all you have to do is to implant few specific plants and look after them”, says he.

However, along with animals butterfly garden helps to conserve the local variety of plants, having high medicinal value, as well, which is also of utmost importance. The native plants are fast disappearing due to unscientific gardening, rapid urbanization and plantation of ornamental foreign plants that has nothing to do with the local ecosystem. “The ornamental plants specially the foreign plants might increase the visual pleasure but in a way it hampers the local ecosystem. Being a foreign plant no local insect would live or breed in it, and so the biodiversity that is suppose to grow surrounding the plant would not take place.

Other than wildlife conservation, butterfly garden has endless other positive dimensions. Being a master pollinator, butterflies helps the plants to spread their seeds thus reproduce. Moreover, butterflies create an immense positive effect of human psyche, according to Somnath, it releases stress for the adult and increases intelligence among the children. “My 5 year old boy can tell you more than 30 scientific names of birds and butterflies”, informs he, and “it has been only possible due to the garden.”  More of it, butterflies are extremely pollution sensitive and acts as a sensor of pollution. It the butterflies are living in a place, it can be believed blindly, it is pollution free.

The Gaudy Baron came to Somnath's garden

Since 2009 West Bengal Forest Department has appreciated all the positive impact of butterfly garden and as a result they have created a Butterfly Garden on 10 acres of land at Eden garden from March this year with the help of Arjan. “A butterfly garden is a biodiversity garden. And spreading the bio diversity is one of the prime aims of forest department”, informs Saurabh Chaudhuri, The Conservator of Forest, Parks, Garden Circle, Forest Department, Government of west Bengal.

And not only the forest department but various schools and colleges also have taken the initiative of establishing butterfly garden like St. John’s Diocesan School, Bethune College, Presidency College etc.

Likewise 19 year old Manas Sarkar has been enjoying all these benefits for last two years. “It acts as a source of mental peace for me”, says Manas, a B A first year student, a owner of 750 sq ft Butterfly garden. Two years ago who came to know about butterfly garden and his passion for wildlife photography dragged him toward the hobby.

That reminds Somnath, the Butterfly garden maker, the incident of Alipore Zoological Garden and who didn’t know anything about butterflies before that. One chilli December morning Somnath went to Alipore zoo to explore his brand new Sony SLR camera. At an abandoned and ill maintained corner, in the zoo, he found hundreds of butterflies on a heap of garbage. Excited Somnath finished the memory card within an hour and returned to the spot next week. But the “place was cleared and visitors of the zoo were picnicking”, and he couldn’t find a single butterfly that day.  The fates of those poor homeless insects touched him so sorry that he vowed to give them a proper home in his own house.

 And he has been living up to his words without a slightest exception.

The Last Interaction

                                      

                                    

   The Bitter Beginning...

On this 16^th October, around 7o' clock in the evening  I was walking through the Mandeville Gardens Road near Gariahaat. Gloomily, watching the pre-puja celebration of the City of Joy. Just four more days to puja and I was given an ‘important assignment’ at 7o’ clock in the evening, which completely shattered my plans of Puja shopping.
The posh neighbourhood of South Kolkata was glowing with lights, hoardings and smiling passersby and I was numb, tired by the day’s work and yet to report another story. Everybody was free, everybody was happy but us (me and Sumit Da- THE Photographer).
But we walked through the crowded road , anyway, to interview Sunil Gangopadhyay. The fact - I was finally going to meet one of the creators of my childhood fantasies- lifted my mood a bit but not entirely. He gave me half an hour time from his daily schedule, which accidentally clashed with my puja shopping plan.

The Magical Half An Hour...

I pressed the door bell and one of the house servants took us to the sitting room. After a brief waiting, the person emerged in his beautifully furnished drawing room, was not the Sunil Gangopadhyay I knew. Clad in an orange kurta and pajamas, he was much thinner than I last saw him in Kolkata Book Fare few years ago.
He entered the room at exact 7o’clock, sat on the couch opposite to me, lighted a cigarette from his ‘Gold Flake King Size’ packet and talked. 

“What’s your name again?” he asked.
I answered.

“What’s your age?”

I gave him the number.“Too young to be a journalist!” he stared with a nodding head and smiled.

I was offended but smiled back anyway. Then he spoke again, 

“To bolo. What do you want from this old hag?”I smiled and put my phone on recording mode and began the ...

            

           
            Me- Tell me how you started Krittibas?

Sunil- Initially we had no plan of starting a little magazine. Infact, me and my friend Dipak Majumdar went to Dilip Kumar Gupta (better known as DK) to publish our own poetry book. DK told us to start a little magazine rather publishing a book. Actually, we needed more space to write poetry. 

Me- Who is Dilip Kumar Gupta?

Sunil- Then DK was the editor of Sygnet press. He not only brought revolution in Bengali printing industry by changing introducing modern forms of printing, binding and covers, and showed the book printing could also be an art. He published classics of modern poetry by Jibananda Das, such as Bonolota Sen and Rupasi Bangla. Satyajit Ray illustrated their covers. He gave us the idea of starting a magazine that would be ‘for the youths and by the youths’ of the society. And without hesitation we took the idea. When we started Krittibas, I was a third year Bengali Honours Student, 19 or 20-year-old. Though, It was a tiny publication, it had a strong motto. I remember, the first two editions were extremely attractive.

Me- What was the motto?

Sunil- We wouldn’t take any writings from well known writers or poets. Only new and young literates could submit their works in Krittibas. It is true that currently, though in small amounts, Krittibas publishes works of well known poets but in our time it was dedicated only to youths and new literates. I remember, we used to receive plenty of poetry from famous poets, but we humbly refused them. 

Me- So, how little magazine has helped you to become Sunil Gangopadhyay?

Sunil- Little magazine is everything; my identity, my life! Whatever I am today it is for little magazine and Krittibas. In my closer circle, even today, I introduce myself as the child of little magazine.

Me- ...But how exactly it has helped you?

Sunil- Little magazine gives the space and freedom of experimentation without any financial concern. Only a little magazine lets the writer speak out his heart, by breaking the traditional rules of literature, which enhances his creativity and makes him a more prominent literate. The same thing happened with me too. With Krittibas, I experimented and expanded my creative arena. I learnt how to communicate with the reader in new ways.
The experimentation is one of the prime reasons that Krittibas still exists. If we would have repeated the old trash, readers would have thrown it within no time.
Moreover, we never had any financial ambition or expectation from Krittibas. So, we easily gave space to the young writers and have been maintaining our tradition.The experimentation is one of the prime reasons that Krittibas still exists. If we would have repeated the old trash, readers would have thrown it within no time.Moreover, we never had any financial ambition or expectation from Krittibas. So, we easily gave space to the young writers and have been maintaining our tradition.

Me, Sunil Sir and Sumit Da

                                                                       Me- ...So, is that tradition still going on?

Sunil- It is hardly possible, now, because I, myself have grown older (humorously). But still we try to maintain it. It is true that we publish works of known writers, mainly my friends associated with Krittibas from its inception, but young and new writers are still given importance. You would see, we begin Krittibas with the works of new poets and writers and last few pages are left for the well knows writers.

Me- Since you mentioned your age, do you think that is the sole reason of your deteriorating health, because, even few months ago you were a healthy man?

   Sunil- Do you mean I was a chubby, fat person (laughing)? Yes, I was. But for some reasons I am losing weight like anything. Let’s see what happens....

That evening I spent the shortest half hour of my life. His words were driving the time faster than usual and the entire conversation became more of a series of moving pictures (Just like his writing). It was not the topic we were talking about, but his way of talking. And after that ‘super fast’ 30 minutes- while walking back through the same Mandeville Gardens road- I felt cheerful. Not for the fact that I was finally free for the day, but for the conversation I had with the ‘Milestone of Modern Bengali Literature’.

...And, The End

At the 6.30 in the morning of 23^rd October- I was fondling on my bed to take the folded bed sheet to cover me from the morning cold- the phone rang. It was my birthday. The harsh ringtone made me think about some of my friend's attempt to wish me 'Happy Birthday'.

 “Hello!?!” I answered, without even looking at the screen.

“Didnt you interview Sunil Gongopadhay few days ago?” It was my editor!

“Who... What? Yes Sir!” I answered gaining my consciousness.

“Well, have you filed the interview?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Ok, then send it to me ASAP. It’s Important. He died last night and it was probably his

 last interview.”

“What? Ok”, was all that I managed to utter as the phone went dead.