Peryiar Tiger Reserve – Here I came to search you

Dear friends I am narrating my most memorable and emotionally difficult journey in the wild. It was here at Thekkady, I came with my wife on 23rd Oct 2014 after I was invited by TNHS to attend a butterfly survey at PTR. That was my last my first and last butterfly trip with my beloved.

I see you everywhere my love

It was becoming difficult to lead this lonely and confined life at Bangalore after I lost her on 9th Dec 2014. one fine morning I got a call from Dr Kalesh of TNHS to attend a follow-up Butterfly survey at PTR from 13th Feb to 15th Feb 2015. I initially hesitated but ultimately agreed to attend the survey.

I took a bus to Kumily from Bangalore in the evening of 12th Feb 2015 and reported the base camp at Bamboo Grooves, Kumily in the early morning of 13th Feb. There I was deputed to a high elevation location situated at Mangaladevi in the border of Tamilnadu and Kerala. I was fortunate to have the company of Vinay Krishan, who was my team mate for the survey.

We spent two memorable nights at Mangaladevi and documented over 90 species of Butterflies along with mammals like Stripped Necked Mongoose, Gaur, Barking Deer andMouse Dear.   We witnessed the ancient heritage of India at the ruins of Mangaladevi Temple.

During this trip I had the opportunity to click a few butterflies that were first timers for me. The Palni Four Ring, Brown King Crow, Baby Five Ring and White Four Ring are now added to my list. Here I clicked my first ever Indian Red Admiral from South India. I also had better images of Blue Admiral, Red Helen and White Hedge Blue.

I sincerely thank PTR foundation and TNHS to include me in the survey and allowed me to live some time in the memory lane.