The Butterfly Man Of Nagaland

Tshetsholo Naro wants the world to know that Nagaland is a hotspot for spotting rare butterflies

- Nabarun Guha

When Tshetsholo Naro and his friend Sanjoy Sondhi had gone out looking for butterflies on a hot June morning, they didn’t have any idea that they were going to be a part of history. The duo sighted Tawny Emperor (Chitoria ulupi ulupi) and Comic Oakblue (Arhopala comica), two rare butterfly species, which was, in fact, the first sighting of the two species in India in 100 years.

The Rare Sighting

A photographer by profession, Naro is known as the ‘Butterfly Man’ for his unbridled passion for butterflies. Even after all these years, he gets excited when people ask about the discovery. ‘We sighted the two species at my native village Chizami in Phek district of south-eastern Nagaland. The last known record of these two species in India dated back to 1915. Generally, first time sightings of butterflies happen in Arunachal Pradesh. However, our discovery showed that even Nagaland can be a destination to spot butterflies.’ Sondhi is associated with the Titli Trust, while Naro is a part of the North East Network (NEN).

They wrote about their discovery in the ‘Journal of Threatened Taxa’ in an article titled ‘Butterflies (Lepidoptera) of Chizami, Phek District, Nagaland, India’. The article states that there were two records of Comic Oakblue by Naro from the NEN compound on April 1, 2013 and April 12, 2014. Naro has been identifying butterflies in the area since 2011.