India is all set to have its ‘national butterfly’ by early 2021 as a group of 50 butterfly enthusiasts initiated a first-of-a-kind online public campaign on Friday last week, which will end on October 7.

Considering the ecological importance, conservation and growing population of butterflies in India; several experts, researchers and scientists came together during the lockdown to share their thoughts on choosing country’s national butterfly.

As the process started, a team of 50 from across the country spent hours in online discussions over the past three weeks and decided to give a list of three recommendations each.

Since it was the matter of symbolism, many criteria were taken into consideration such as the species should neither be rare nor too common, have to be fairly distributed across the landscape, should be easily recognisable by the public.

 “Once chosen, these characteristics would help to define the cultural, ecological and conservation significance for the country and even attract tourism in later years,” says Amol Patwardhan, Mumbai-based Zoology professor.

From the list, 50 butterfly species were shortlisted for the next round and internal polling was done to squeeze the list further to seven species. The finalists selected for the online poll are Krishna Peacock, Common Jezebel, Orange Oakleaf, Fivebar Sword Tail, Common Nawab, Yellow Gorgon and Northern Jungle Queen.

Over one lakh people have been expected to cast their vote for the national butterfly in an online poll. It contains some basic details about the species as well as their photographs. The polling will end on October 7.

By mid-October, the proposal with three finalist butterflies will be submitted to the Ministry of Environment & Forests. The national butterfly’s name is likely to be announced by early 2021. “We are hoping in the new year, we will have a national butterfly,” says Vijay Barve, Biodiversty Informatics Researcher, Florida Museum of Natural History.

India is home to the most number of diverse butterfly species with over 1,400 species flitting all across the country.