By Neena Bhandari
New Delhi, 01.11.1995 (IPS): While the world tries hard to stop poachers from wiping out tigers and elephants in the wild, the threat from collectors to butterflies — a crucial link in the food chain — has been ignored.
“These delightful creatures may soon disappear,” warns Virendra Singh, an environmentalist. “Foreigners visiting the country on tourist visas are indiscriminately catching and smuggling out butterflies.”
Four large cartons containing some 15,000 moths and butterflies were seized recently from two Germans, Herman Heinrich and Weigert Ludwig. The collection included 400 rare and endangered species of butterflies, carefully packed in small plastic sachets with codes indicating where each was caught.