Pune, March 3: A unique park in Pune is home to hundreds of colourful butterflies.

The park is spread across two acres of land in Sahakar Nagar in the city amid lush vegetation and habitat. It is an ideal place to watch rare species of butterflies.

Due to depleting green cover butterflies are fast becoming extinct in cities, which was the main reason behind the foundation of this park.

Park comprises of a conservatory, museum and an audio-visual room with 20 odd species on display.

Pune Municipal Corporation's Horticulture Superintendent, Santosh Kumar Kamle said the park would help in preserving bio-diversity apart from helping to understand the species.

"The concept of this butterfly park is to create awareness about the bio-diversity among the general public, especially students. For this purpose, we have constructed a breeding house in which the butterfly develops from Larva to Pupa and adult stage," said Kamle.

The Pune Municipal Corporation funded the park with 50 million rupees. The place has been converted from a dirty drain into a beautiful park.

It has a rock garden, waterfalls and green cover to attract butterflies and to give citizens a reason to enjoy their time.

A jogging track has also been developed as an extension to the garden. The track has trees on both sides and it runs along the drain.

The park has a variety of butterfly such as Plain Tiger, Leg Fancy, Cross Yellow, Common Castor, Common Crow and Lime.

According to the forest conservators, the park is an effort to start a gene pool and control depletion of butterflies, which are significant ecological indicators.

There are approximately 1430 species of butterflies in the country. (ANI)