What is a ‘Butterfly Mine’?

What is a ‘Butterfly Mine’?

• The PFM-1 and PFM-1S are two kinds of anti-personnel landmines that are commonly referred to as ‘Butterfly mines’ or ‘Green Parrots’.
• These names are derived from the shape and colour of the mines.
• The main difference between the PFM-1 and PFM-1S mine is that the latter comes with a self destruction mechanism which gets activated within one to 40 hours.
• PFM-1 mine is a scatterable high explosive anti-personnel landmine of Soviet and Russian production.
• The ‘Butterfly mine’ has earned a reputation for being particularly attractive to children because it looks like a coloured toy.
• It is very sensitive to touch and just the act of picking it up can set it off.
• Because of the relatively lesser explosive packed in this small mine, it often injures and maims the handler rather than killing them.
• These mines are also difficult to detect because they are made of plastic and can evade metal detectors.
• These mines can be deployed in the field of action through several means, which include being dropped from helicopters or through ballistic dispersion using artillery and mortar shells.
• These mines glide to the ground without exploding and later explode on coming in contact.
• Since these mines were green in colour when they were first put to use they also earned the name ‘Green Parrots’.

• The PFM series mines are moulded in polythene plastic and have two wings, one of which is heavier than the other.
• The thicker wing is the pressure activation for the main fuse which is contained in the central body.
• The thinner wing acts as a stabiliser for the mine when it is air-dropped, thus giving it the name ‘butterfly’.
• As per data available on the mine, a pressure exceeding 5 kg will activate the mine which contains 40g of explosive.
• By some estimates more than a million ‘Butterfly mines’ litter Afghanistan and were airdropped in valleys and mountain passes to impede the movement of the Afghan Mujahideen. PFM-1 was also used during the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.

• The anti personnel mines are banned by the  United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW), but Russia and Ukraine are not signatories to it.
• However, there is a 1996 Amended Protocol II to the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons – the Landmines Protocol to which Russia and Ukraine are signatories.