Science City is observing International Bio-Diversity week by holding series of webinars for students and general public. The first webinar in this series was organized on “Diversity in Butterflies & Moths and their role in Ecosystem”.
Around 300 students and teachers from all over Punjab participated on this occasion.
Dr. H.S Rose, Former Pro-Chancellor, Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo was the key speaker on this occasion. During his talk, he said that basic objective of celebrating this day is to create awareness about conservation of biodiversity and its importance on account of planned/unplanned urbanization, industrialization, monoculture and ever-growing needs of the vast human population.
He said that butterflies and moths have a lot of diversity and play a very important role in our ecosystem, act as a pollinator, a food source and an indicator of the ecosystem's wellbeing, whereas quite a good number of moth species are pests of various agricultural and horticultural crops.Further, butterflies are diverse insects found in many colours and sizes andthere are more than 28,000 species of butterflies worldwidewith about 80 percent in tropical regions. Their survival depends on nectar that is produced in flowers and also extra-ripe fruits, he added.
Dr. Neelima Jerath, Director General Science City, in her introductory remarks said that butterflies are one of the most conspicuous species of Earth’s biodiversity and are identified as useful bio indicators due to their responsive behaviour to any changes in the environment namely temperature, humidity, light, rainfall patterns etc.
Further, butterflies are also called flying flowers, displaying their beauty. These insects enhance the aesthetic value of the environments by their exquisite wing colours. She He urged the participants to minimize chemical use in the gardensas pesticides and chemicals are lethal to insect biodiversity.
On this Dr. Rajesh Grover Director Science City, said that there has been an alarming rise in industrial and automobile pollution in Indian metropolitan cities. He stressed on the need to include a variety of nectar producing plants in the gardens so as to ensure that butterfly friendly food was available throughout the year thus conserving biodiversity.