Lime butterfly (Papilio demoleus) found in Bodoland Territorial Region of Northeast India.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
The Assam Forest Department on Saturday (July 4, 2026) released a special booklet on the butterflies found in the forest landscape of the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR).Hagrama Mohilary, the Chief Executive Member of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC), released the booklet in Kokrajhar, about 220 kilometres west of Guwahati. The BTC administers the Kokrajhar-headquartered BTR comprising five districts, all bordering Bhutan.Spread across 3,653 sq. km., the Bodoland forest landscape comprises a mosaic of tropical evergreen, semi-evergreen, moist mixed-deciduous forests, and alluvial grasslands situated at the confluence of the Indo-Malayan and Indo-Gangetic biogeographic zones.The landscape supports 346 of Assam’s 620 recorded butterfly species, including several rare, endemic and threatened taxa, making BTR one of the richest butterfly habitats in Northeast India.According to Sonali Ghosh, the chief of the Forest Department for BTR, the region is the only ecological corridor in the Northeast where butterfly species of the Eastern Himalayas, Indo-Malayan region, and the Indo-Gangetic plains occur together.BTR’s Ultapani-Manas landscape supports several rare and remarkable butterflies including the endemic yellow-crested spangle (Papilio elephenor) and Swinhoe’s flat (Celaenorrhinus zea). Other notable Eastern Himalayan species recorded from the landscape include the great windmill (Byasa dasarada), Moore’s cupid (Shijimia moorei), Mussoorie bush bob (Pedesta masuriensis), and green awlet (Burara vasutana).
