Phuket butterfly release on Saturday

PHUKET: The Phuket Butterfly Garden and Insect World will hold its annual butterfly release ceremony on Saturday morning at the Khao Phra Thaew Wildlife Conservation Area in Thalang.

Phuket Butterfly Garden Managing Director Wasin Koysiripong said the event, now in its fourth year, came about from the Butterfly Garden’s ability to breed butterflies and the recognition that the number of butterflies in Phuket is decreasing, as is species diversity.

The free-admission event will kick off with an opening ceremony at the Khao Phra Thaew Wildlife Conservation Development and Extension Center, at 8:30am.

After that 1,000 butterflies will take wing inside the park, home to the island’s last great expanse of virgin forest.

Specimens of fifteen different butterfly species will be on display at the event: Mormon, Common Mormon, Common Rose, Yellow Helen, Lemon Emigrant, Leopard Lacewing, Autumn Leave, Orange Oakleaf, Great Egg-fly, Clipper, Chocolate Soldier, Dark Blue Tiger, Blue Glassy Tiger, Common Tiger and Common Glassy Tiger.

Also to take place will be a tree-planting ceremony and demonstration of how to make “effective microorganism” (EM) balls, believed by many to be effective both as a fertilizer and as a way to treat wastewater.

Ms Wasin said she would like to see as many people as possible turn out for this free-of-charge environmental awareness event.

For more information, contact Phuket Butterfly Garden and Insect World (Tel: 076-210861).

— Sitthipong Nongkaew