Fact Check: Here Is The Truth Behind The Mysterious Butterfly of Pahalgam

Umran Hussain
The Kashmir Radar: Butterflies are considered to be one of the most beautiful species in the insect family. But a recent picture of a butterfly taken somewhere in Pahalgam- a famous tourist destination in district Anantnag of Jammu and Kashmir caught everyones attention for its unusual looks.
Rumor mongers in an attempt to persuade a gullible public tried their every bit to spread false information about the butterfly in the picture.
With thousands of people uploading and sharing the picture, only a few social media users tried to dig a little deeper to know that the butterfly in the picture is actually not any mysterious creature, but Brahmaea wallichii, also known as the owl moth.
Brahmaea wallichii, is a moth from the family Brahmaeidae, the Brahmin moths, and one of its largest species. It is found in the north of India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, China, Taiwan, and Japan. This moth is usually found active during the night. The wingspan is about 90–160 millimetres.
The picture was first shared by a social media user with a caption, ‘Khudaya Raham: This creature was found in Pahalgam today. What is this.?
People as usual started reacting to the post and after a thorough scanning of a few social media handles which had uploaded the picture, most of the people were found perplexed and clueless, considering the moth in the picture as something mysterious.
In order to fact check the viral post, our fact finding team found it necessary to bring the truth out.