Chandigarh, Sep 7 - It promises to be an incredible sight - winged beauties of 100 species, collected from across the world, fluttering around on the outskirts of Chandigarh! For, this city is set to house India's second butterfly park.

The park will be established in the coming months in the green belt area in Sector 26 of this union territory (UT) as per international standards.

Ishwar Singh, chief conservator of forests, Chandigarh, told IANS: 'This world class butterfly park will be established in an area of around 7.5 acres. This will be the country's second butterfly park as there is another such park in Bangalore.'

'We had written to the entomology department of Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) in Ludhiana and they are ready to provide us consultancy services,' Singh said.

The country's first butterfly park is at Bannerghatta national park in Bangalore, Karnataka.

The butterfly park project in Chandigarh that was proposed earlier this year ran into rough weather, as two petitions challenging it were filed in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

In the petition it was alleged that to establish this park, the union territory would destroy a 225-year-old heritage water body spread over 2.5 acres and surrounded by thick vegetation and a decades-old fruit nursery.

However, the petitions were disposed of later by the court bench.

'The life cycle of a butterfly is 30 to 40 days. Our aim is to include more than 100 species of butterflies that we will bring from all across the world. This is to make sure that at least 40-50 varieties of butterflies will remain available in the park at all times,' Singh said.

Elaborating about the park he said: 'This park will be developed under controlled conditions that will provide a congenial environment for butterflies to breed throughout the year.