Every time I visit a garden which has a designated places for butterflies, it gives me a feeling of gratitude for the mindfulness shown towards them! I watched the gardener carefully de-weeding the garden stretch where plants that butterflies are fond of, are grown. It gives an altogether different feeling when the butterflies are in the open. There is an assured and undisturbed habitat for them.
Our eco-friendliness is explicit only if the smaller beings also finD an undisturbed space for themselves in our environment.
When I was in the garden, an elderly person ahead of me in age, seeing me take photographs of the butterflies, told me a disturbing personal story. During his school going days, butterflies and dragon flies were two most common sights he enjoyed while walking a kilometre along a stream to go to his school. There were hundreds of them and it was delightfully interesting to see them breed. Now the stream is contaminated with effluents and there is no sign of dragon flies or butterflies along that stream. Also the greenery is replaced by buildings and human habitation with very little garden space. So he comes once a month to the park to watch the butterflies. During the in between time, he has to be satisfied by going through the several photo albums he has of butterflies. He kept talking about different species of butterflies and the habitats of each species. He seemed to me as a walking encyclopaedia on butterflies.
For him times have changed. He misses the earlier environment!
For each of us, there are stories of such vivid memories of gladness and regrets!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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