Bannerghatta Butterfly Park & Zoo

Butterfly butterfly, flutter by, flutter by. That was the first thing that came to mind when I went to the country's first and only (so far) butterfly park in Bannerghatta (about 18 km from home). The butterfly park was a beauty, but I was disappointed I didn't get to see too many of the colourful chaps up close (yes, I know, they won't come up to me unless I'm a flower). But Indians will be Indians, and damned Indians at that. I was just too ashamed ans saddened to click snaps of the chips packets ans toffee wrappers strewn about by our people, so instead picked some up with my brother following suit and threw them in the dustbin, which are there everywhere, begging the question: is this problem genetic?

The projector wasn't working so we couldn't watch the movie, but the park and the museum were very nice indeed. The plants, flowers and trees grown there are lovely and maintained very well indeed, while charging only Rs.20 as an entry fee, with an additional Rs.20 for a still camera and Rs.110 for a video camera. Spread over 7.5 acres, this is one place that everyone in Bangalore must visit once, but be sure not to allow children (if you're bring any) to catch and torture the butterflies once inside the park. I found one little brat doing that, and if it wasn't for the fact that he was a Muslim (everything told to them usually ends up as them being targeted for being a minority! Bullsh*t), he and his parents would have received a far severe verbal lashing from me than what they eventually got: a glare, a finger wagging and a polite 'don't let him do that'.

Some of the butterflies that I did manage to get in front of the lens are shown here (thanks to KD for the names of the butterflies):

This poor chap (Blue Tiger) had a partially damaged wing.









And so did this guy :(

(Common Castor)






Some of them were very stubborn and didn't open their wings at all! I had a good mind to open them up a bit, just in case they were having some trouble (kidding, of course).






Blue Tiger


Lime


A spider feasting on a pupa...
didn't want to disturb the spider
and so clicked without trying
to get it to show it's head.



After the butterfly park it was off to the lion and tiger safari and the zoo. Well, it looks like the lion is the same I saw about 12 years ago (if that's possible). Didn't look very healthy (well, it's not in the savanna hunting), but hey, in a 'stage-managed' safari, you can't expect more.





The tigers looked a lot better (no wonder it's our national animal), and the white tiger that was roaming around, scratching the trees was a really nice sight (oh how I wish theses cats are released into the wild). I overheard someone talking about how these national symbols are overrated and that we shouldn't associate too much emotion to them. Well, I wanted turn and bitch slap him in front of his wife an kid, and then ask him if he'd like me to do the same to his kid and tell him not too attach too much emotion to something he can 'make' again!


I'm going to adopt one of the tigers in the park (by adopt, I don't mean I'll bring it home, but I'll provide the funds to feed it and cover it's treatment); I'm not sure how much it costs, but that's my contribution. And the king cobra (kept in the zoo). I don't care even if I don't get tax relief for this, but this is gonna be my contribution towards improving the facilities that the government seems to have forgotten.