Forest department submits proposal to link Butterfly Park and Mukkombu

The pet project of late CM J Jayalalithaa, the butterfly park has witnessed 2.28 lakh visitors. The park houses 38 varieties of butterfly species. It is said that 14 new varieties have been identified here. This would be confirmed in due course of time.

Claimed to be India’s biggest butterfly park, with an outlay of Rs 8.67 crore in a sprawling 25-acre campus at Melur near Srirangam, it was inaugurated by the late Chief Minister when she visited the city.  Now, it has now almost become a land mark for residents of Tiruchy. 

On any day, it records many footfalls. To attract more visitors, the forest department has charted out a recommendation to the department of tourism to connect Mukkombu tourist spot with the butterfly park. 

Presently, visitors must travel more than 20 km to reach Mukkombu from Butterfly park. There is a way upto Kambarasampettai from the butterfly park. If a good road is laid and connected, the travel time would be very less and the distance will be less than five km to Kambarasampettai which is very close to Mukkombu. 

“We have initially sent a proposal regarding clearing the road as there is a prospect for tourism development in the district. Once the project is over, it would pave way for more number of visitors to the butterfly park”, said District Forest Officer N Satheesh. 

The DFO also said that so far 2.28 lakh including 46,300 children have visited the park and a sum of Rs 28 lakh has been collected. 

“Presently, the park accommodates 38 varieties of butterfly species and 14 new local varieties have been identified which would be confirmed after a survey,” Satheesh said. The conservatory has various facilities including indoor butterfly conservatory, outdoor butterfly conservatory, breeding laboratory, nursery and shade nest house, host plant farm, interpretation facilities, children’s park, ‘ raasi and nakshatra van am ’ and tourist infrastructure facilities. Similarly, host, nectar and roosting plants would be raised for the butterflies.