11 July 2013

Ovalekar Wadi Butterfly Garden

Few weeks back on a lazy Sunday morning we planned a visit to Ovalekar Wadi Butterfly Garden. Managed by Ovalekar brothers this garden is set up in a private farm, at the foot hills of Sanjay Gandhi National Park(Thane) and is home for 132 spices of butterflies. This is an open air garden, that is, you find butterfly in natural surrounding and not in enclosure. The plantation of  larval host plants, help in butterfly breeding..
As we reached, we were asked to register with names and contact details and were briefed about the life cycle of butterfly, with live samples. And introduced to different species of butterflies.. 
Image credit ASU


Ovalekarwadi Butterfly Garden
Caterpillars 
Ovalekarwadi Butterfly Garden
Pupa
Then Mr. Rajendra, took us to the garden tour. As per him different species of butterflies attract to different plants. Few of them attract to rotten fruits, you can find baskets with rotten fruits hung here and there.. There were 10s of butterflies, but these were the only pics i could click...
Ovalekarwadi Butterfly Garden

Ovalekarwadi Butterfly Garden
Plain Tiger
As a part of National Park, you can find few very rare flowers and trees.
Ovalekarwadi Butterfly Garden
Red Passion Flower
Ovalekarwadi Butterfly Garden
Silk cotton tree
And few common flowers
Ovalekarwadi Butterfly Garden
Bird of Paradise
Ovalekarwadi Butterfly Garden
Hibiscus

Ovalekarwadi Butterfly Garden
And a pet Goose, which attracted most of the kids out there
Travel guide:
  • Entry fee: Adult: Rs. 100/- and children below 10yrs Rs.50/-
  • Open only on Sunday's from 8AM to 12:30PM
  • Contact detail: Mr. Rajendra Ovalekar, contact +91-9820779729
  • How to reach:
    • Take buses playing between Thane station and Mira Road/Bhayander, alight at Owala Bus stop. You can take an auto rickshaw to reach the garden... 
    • If you are driving from Thane, take left at the Owala bus stop on Ghodbunder Road. Another km drive will reach you to the garden.
  • More details here in their facebook page Ovalekar Wadi Butterfly Garden

41 comments:

  1. I have been to a few butterfly gardens and just love to visit them. I think your pictures are great; no matter whether you find them out in the wild or in a nature garden like this one, they just don't hold still very well.

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  2. @Sallie: True, its always a treat to watch n click butterflies, where ever you find them...
    @magiceye: True, seems like you have visited too...

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  3. Beautiful! I love the passion flower.

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  4. Great shots from the butterfly garden.

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  5. Beautifully displayed. That silk cotton tree is amazing.

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  6. Thank you all, Gunilla n Poetic Shutterbug: they are supposed to be wild flower n tree, which are hardly found in urban areas.... It was new for me too...

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  7. beautiful place...

    a garden for butterflies wonderful

    thanks meghana

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  8. Most fascinating and informative post and fantastic photography ~ Happy Weekend to you ^_^

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  9. Such a wonderful place to visit. Great pics.

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  10. Beautiful butterflies and I love the pet goose. The flowers are lovely. Wonderful photos and post.

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  11. I love butterfly gardens. Very interesting post. Thanks and happy critter day!

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  12. Thank you eileeninmd and Snap...

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  13. Looks like a beautiful place.

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  14. You should have had a wonderful time seeing and learning about butterflies there. Images are good to see :)

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  15. Thank you Christian, Uma and Denisein...

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  16. What a great post! the flowers are stunning. love the red passion flower. Hope you'd find time to visit Layered.

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  17. Thank you Modern Mom, will definitely visit ur blog...

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  18. gorgeous butterflies! i was at the butterfly garden the other day hoping to photograph some butterflies, but it rained and i didn't see one butterfly.:( the red passionflower is beautiful.

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  19. Thank u, Miranda. How sad, I too was lucky enough to click only two butterflies, while there were so many flying around

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  20. A great place to get up close to all those beautiful species.

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  21. I must have been amazing to see all the butterflies.

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  22. Beautiful tropical garden

    I'm inviting you to join us with your travel images for Travel Photo Mondays next week, please link up with us :)

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  23. Thank you Pieni, CountryMouse and Noel.... Sure Noel, will do that...

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  24. What a beautiful place and lovely pictures.

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  25. Great Description of the place and Nice Capture too

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  26. Wonderful place. Pictures are awesome.

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