Pattampoochi - Butterfly Magazine Pattampoochi - Wings 1 Veins 1 Jan-Mar 2017 | Page 38

TN Butterflies Facebook 2016– An Analysis From Oct 2nd 2016 From the day, this forum is opened exclusively for the posts of butterfly occurring in the region of Tamil Nadu, we have been seeing an increased activities qualita- tively as well as quantitatively. The forum was started with an aim to disseminate knowledge of butterflies to all stake holders of the state and create an enthusiasm and interest among every one. The process also helped us as a by-product in one of the major exercises that we have undertaken that is re-validation of the species occurrence. Photographic evi- dences helped tick off many a species otherwise hiding from us. We hope the fo- rum will continue to grow in stature with active participation of everyone. It is the year 2015 which saw our forum grew slowly and steadily from January to December. And it is the first full year of its presence. Out of 276 species, that was validated for the state at that point in time, 271 of them were posted in our forum. Just 5 species missing. They were Small Leopard, Common Awl, Plain Banded Awl, Coorg Forest Hopper and Golden Flitter. And one or two of them were subsequently seen. Another significant and interesting point to note was 26 districts were represented out of 32 dis- tricts of Tamil Nadu. Among the districts, Coimbatore, Theni, Virudhunagar, Nilgiris, Chennai and Madurai contributed to the bulk of postings. 2016 The Year from Jan 1 to Dec 31 saw a total of 3580 posts. These were contributed by 170 of our forum members. There are some die- hard members whose numbers touch even a double century and many with a century of postings. As a break up, the posts containing a whopping 3200 photos and 21 videos. 707 members were one way or other associated with at least one post each. We do not have a ready comparison numbers of all these to put it against 2015, but in 2015, the overall posts were 3211. This means the year 2016 registered a 11.5% increase in overall posts which should be encouraging for the years to come! 38