As a child, I used to have an open box where I stored butterflies. In different species, I will catch and watch them flutter around inside the box and after a while, I will take the box outside and open it for them to fly out. Watching them fly out in different directions, in their different, satisfying colours, gave me endorphins.
It became an obsession that my mother had to step in. She seized the box and flogged me anytime I held a butterfly. She launched the reaction the day she saw me holding a dead butterfly.
It died in my hands and I didn’t want to let it go. As I grew older, this obsession subconsciously reduced too. One, because I became busier with life realities and two because butterflies just seemed absent.
Something I didn’t exactly realise until some time ago when it occurred to me that the last time I saw a butterfly was – just to give an approximate number – 6 years ago when I moved to the city. It became more concerning for me that I had to text a friend in another city to ask the last time they saw a butterfly. They can’t remember either but they were sure it was many years ago.
I thought this was peculiar until I asked people in my hometown and they confirmed the same. I know a lot of natural creatures are going extinct but it never occurred to me that butterflies, with their vibrant colours and delicate beauty, will be affected. Around the world, butterflies are gradually disappearing.
In 2022, Friend of the Earth, an initiative of the Wor.
