The Butterflies Of Dzongu

We were driving along when my photographer friend Sandip Das exclaimed, “Wow!” A large butterfly was landing and flying and landing again on the mud by the roadside. We stopped to examine it and were surprised to find that it was a northern jungle queen – high on our wishlist!

- Tamaghna Sengupta

We were on our way to the Dzongu Valley in July 2018 to photograph butterflies. Our homestay owner C. D. Lepcha picked us up in his car from Siliguri town early in the morning.

On the way we stopped to watch and photograph butterflies such as the angled red forester and the common earl. We even saw a butterfly we’d never seen before – a blue duke butterfly!

A TIRING TREK TO PASSINDANG

At first, we saw only one blue duke sitting on a rotting banana. Within a few seconds, four blue duke butterflies gathered at the spot. We were so excited, and though a bit nervous, we managed to get some good photographs. We then continued to walk towards Passindang village, where our homestay was located. It was a tiring trek and we reached our destination late in the evening, satisfied with ​our two rare sightings: the northern jungle queen and the blue duke.