Bandra gets city’s first butterfly park

Vithal Kamat, executive chairman and managing director of The Orchid, who inaugurated this unique park said, “The main idea behind this project is to provide citizens a place which can act as a stress buster besides educating them about beautiful creatures like butterflies.”

The hospitality group has a full-fledged vermin-culture and horticulture department. Since it is becoming extremely difficult to spot butterflies in the city, this group carried a study to ascertain the conditions that assist in breeding of butterflies. Following this, the team planted plants like Lantana, Lila, Exora Singapur, Exora deffi, Hibicus Hawai, Nerium Oliandar, Sunflower, Cassia, Ficus etc.

An official associated with the group said, “Apart from opening such parks, we are also looking at the options of maintaining traffic islands and space below the flyover through eco-friendly initiatives.” The group is planning several other eco-friendly projects in the western suburbs. The official added, “In fact, we have plans to open study centers, which would be helpful for students who are cramped for spaces in Mumbai. Besides, we are also planning to provide facilities at such places to budding talent who want to hone their skills in sculpting.”

Anil Deshmukh, State Public Works Minister, while lauding the efforts requested the group to beautify the flyover structure. “They can take a leaf of out of history and use them as themes to decorate our flyovers”.

Kamat said, “The idea behind making this butterfly park is to make the city beautiful. The city has given us so much; this is our way of returning back to the city. The government has also been very cooperative in our venture and we plan to construct a few other such gardens with the government’s support in the near future.”

(http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&sectid=70&contentid=2008070820080708143500248441f5d13&pageno=1#)