Roshan Upadhaya had butterflies in his stomach after landing the job of a constable in the Arunachal Pradesh Police a decade ago. Today, he is known as the butterfly man of the frontier State.
The 29-year-old knew his duties would include chasing criminals and making entries in the registers of any police station or outpost assigned to him. He never imagined he would ‘chase’ butterflies and dragonflies, and record them in entomology journals as a citizen-scientist lepidopterist beyond his “khaki time”.
Mr. Upadhaya has so far recorded six previously unspotted species of butterflies and a dragonfly – Atratothemis reelsi , which was new to India. Of the butterflies he documented, the striped hairstreak and elusive prince were new to India while the veined palmer and spotted yellow lancer were new to Arunachal Pradesh. He attributes his love for butterflies and nature to his brush with death after suffering from a ruptured appendix in 2016.
“This happened on my way to Dibrugarh (Assam) to appear for my BA examination. I used to go to the jungles to fight the depression that engulfed me due to the prolonged treatment and inability to give the exam,” he told The Hindu from Changlang district’s Miao, where he is posted.
Frequent trips to the jungles – the 1,985 sq. km Namdapha Tiger Reserve is close to Miao – to minutely watch butterflies and insects and read up on them gave Mr. Upadhaya the resolve to attempt his BA exam again in 2018. He “crossed the barrier” in distance learning mode.
Graduation was Mr. Upadhaya’s aim when he got through to the Arunachal Pradesh Police around the time he cleared his Class 12. He could not appear for his degree final examination in 2014 because of general election duty that saw his leave being cancelled.
His transfer from Kurung Kumey to Changlang district prevented him from another shot at graduation in 2015.
“I love my job as much as I love nature and conservation, learning about the flora and fauna of Arunachal Pradesh,” he said.
Mr. Upadhaya, a resident of Jagun in Assam’s Tinsukia district and about 35 km from Miao, has also been drilling conservation into the heads of teenagers who come to him for economics lessons.
Apart from teaching economics free to Class 11 and 12 students who cannot afford tuition or coaching classes, he is a guest teacher at the Namdapha Degree College and the Government Higher Secondary School at Miao.
With a State police award under his belt and an Asian record for letting 140 different species of butterflies perch on his body, Mr. Upadhaya intends to take his passion for the small winged creatures to wherever his profession takes him across Arunachal Pradesh, preferably in the higher Himalayan reaches, where very few other than the men in uniform go.
