author(s)
Gaurava Kumar and MS Khan

abstract
Taking the increasing anthropogenic pressure and its drastic outcomes on the distribution of vegetation and fearful environmental changes into the consideration following study was done to observe the difference in butterfly biodiversity of two families, Nymphalidae and Pieridae in five different places of Uttarakhand and to observe their relationship with local environmental conditions. A total number of 2887 individuals comprising 39 species of butterflies belonging to 2 families, Pieridae and Nymphalidae were recorded during the surveys carried out in 5 different sites situated at different elevation gradients i.e. Chamoli, Kedarnath, Bageshwar and Almora and Dehradun. Butterfly population was found to be correlated with the human population as well as, with the distribution of vegetation. Maximum numbers of butterflies were recorded from Chamoli followed by Almora and Dehradun. The least number of butterflies were recorded from Kedarnath, due to the comparatively higher elevation and lesser temperature as compared to the other location. Due to high anthropogenic impact in Bageshwar a low population of butterflies were recorded, when compared to a much bigger city Dehradun with a better butterfly count.