Need to secure bats under a new law of wildlife protection for their role in the environment
When I was a child, I used to visit Chidambaram for summer vacations where my maternal grandparents and uncle used to stay. It used to be a meeting place for all the cousins. Every morning and evening we used to visit the great Nataraja (dancing Shiva) Temple of Chidambaram and at all the four entrances (Kopurams), I used to see bats (the flying mammal) sitting during the daytime in the inner portions of Kopurams and crevices (where there was no sunlight) and in the evenings (during and after sunset) moving very fast in large numbers in the same temple premises. Being nocturnal, I used to wonder from where they will get their food!!
I used to get scared that they might attack us. But nothing happened. They were tactfully managing their movements without hitting anyone or hurting themselves!! I used to be amazed by their behavior. Similarly, I have seen bats in many of the old buildings and temples in south India.
But as years passed , time took me to various cities where I did not get time to go deep into the behavior of bats.
When I retired from my 25 years of hectic job recently, I found time for long walks in the evenings or mornings in the city of Mumbai where I reside.
As part of my walking sessions to various destinations within Mumbai, I go to Five Gardens, near Parsee Colony in Central Mumbai at least four times a month.
One evening in May 2013, I saw a colony of bats hanging and some flying away and coming back to the trees to hang at least on two or three trees in the `Five Gardens’ area in Central Mumbai in large numbers. These bats are also called `day roosting flying foxes.
Roosting flying fox colony (bats) on trees at the `Five Gardens' area
May 27, 2013
Roosting flying fox colony (bats) on trees at the `Five Gardens' area
May 27,2013
May 27, 2013
I was surprised to see them in such a busy place where there is heavy traffic. I have read in books that bats are seen in the villages on top of fruit trees and inside some of the old temples and buildings.
Then I spoke to the director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) Dr Asad Rehmani about my spotting of the flying fox colony at Five Gardens, but he was not surprised and he said “you can find them roosting in trees just outside the BNHS which is located in the busiest area of South Mumbai with heavy traffic and also in some other parts of Mumbai.”
One of my photographer friends told me that he even found a big and very noisy colony of flying foxes near one of the newspaper offices located in Mahim in North Mumbai. Rehmani also said they keep changing their roosting location depending on the availability of food. One more roosting place is located in Mulund West --- in one of the busiest linking roads of Mumbai!
June 7, 2013
A flying fox in the `Five Gardens' area during dust
June 7, 2013
A flying fox hanging upside down on a tree at `Five Gardens'
June 7,2013
I was excited about the whole thing and was keen to know more about bats of India.
While searching the literature, I found that Dr Prof G Agoramoorthy, Distinguished Research Professor at Tajen University, Taiwan had done some detailed studies on Indian Salim Ali’s fruit bat Latidens salimalii and studied them in Megamalai forest of the Western Ghats in India some time ago ( Salim Ali’s fruit bat finds an entry in the Guinness Book as one of the three rarest bats in the world).
He told me in an email interaction that India is home to about a hundred species of bats, including 12 fruit bats, such as the fulvous fruit bat Rousettus leschenaulti, Indian flying fox Pteropus giganteus, Nicobar flying fox P faunulus, island flying fox P hypomelanus, Blyth’s flying fox P melanotus, short-nosed fruit bat Cynopterus sphinx, lesser dog-faced fruit bat C brachyotis, Ratanaworabhan’s fruit bat Megaerops niphanae, Salim Ali’s fruit bat Latidens salimalii, Blanford’s fruit bat Sphaerias blanfordi, dawn bat Eonycteris spelaea, and hill long-tongued fruit bat Macroglossus sobrinus.
“Sadly, though, data on the conservation status, population density, and ecology of many of these species is limited due to lack of field studies,” he said.
The bats in general are often ignored by the public and the Hindu religion has somehow missed out to name them as Gods/Goddesses!!!!,Agoramoorthy said.
Agoramoorthy also said the Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 consigned bats to schedule V along with the common crow, mice, and rats. This means that the animal is deemed to be ‘vermin’ and is devoid of any protection. Therefore, hunting a fruit bat and other bats is not a crime, according to the Act.
“ While the more glamorous animals — elephants, rhinos, lions, and tigers — have received considerable attention from conservationists in the country, bats have been largely ignored in such discourses,” he said.
Joseph Reginald Louis of SACON ( The Sálim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History) who is studying fruit bats had said recently that he was fascinated by them. Fruit bats, with their big eyes and pointed snouts, look cute, he says. “I would call them nocturnal angels as they have a lot of “ecological impact.---- contribute a great deal to pollination and seed dispersal.
Despite the efforts made by academicians to get fruit bats off Schedule V, the Ministry of Environment and Forests has remained unresponsive according to Dr. G. Marimuthu, Head, Department of Animal Behaviour, Madurai Kamaraj University. His study on bats has shown that birds cause more damage to fruits such as grapes during the day than bats do at night. Marimuthu has spent 35 years of his life researching bats.
He pointed out that a guava seed gets to travel long distances if the fruit is eaten by a bat. The seed, released in a new place with the excreta, has more chances of developing into a healthy tree than normal seed. “A seed that passes through the stomach of a bat has a better rate of germination,” he says.
Insect bats keep mosquitoes under control. “An insect bat that weighs two grams can eat up to 300 mosquitoes in an hour,” explains Sanjay Molur, Executive Director, Zoo Outreach Organisation. This way, bats directly contribute to keeping dengue at bay.
Despite their contributions to the environment, bats have more enemies than friends. Joseph feels that man is their biggest threat. Man hunts the animal for meat. “In Pollachi, a man has made hunting bats his occupation. He is known as ‘Vavval pudikkiravan’ (bat-catcher) in the area,” says Joseph.
Hunting and destruction of habitat have further threatened certain bat species. Joseph has observed a colony of them in Coimbatore that was forced to move since their home, a tree, was destroyed. The colony has changed four roosting sites already.
So when I asked Rehmani, the director of BNHS why the institute is not putting up boards under the roosting trees for the bat's protection, he said, “this will create more problems for bats than doing good and it is better that we leave them alone for their survival.”
Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight and around the globe there are 950 species of bats. One of the oldest fossils, Icaronycteris, is from the early Eocene era, dating back at least 50 million years. And this fossil hardly differs from the modern bat!
“These fascinating creatures of the night belong to the order Chiroptera, meaning ‘hand-wing’. Chiroptera has two suborders, Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera with 17 families and 177 genera,” Agoramoorthy said.
Bats belonging to the suborder Microchiroptera are the microbats or insect-eating bats. They have small eyes and large ears, and produce ultrasound over 15 kHz, which human ears are unable to catch. They rely on echolocation for navigation and to catch insects.
The suborder Megachiroptera consists of the mega bats or fruit-eating bats. These bats have large, keen eyes, an acute sense of smell and small ears as compared to the size of their bodies. In general, Megachiroptera do not produce ultrasound; however, those belonging to the genus Rousettus have a primitive echolocation system. They make an audible clicking sound through their mouths.
Tropical fruit bats play a significant role in rainforest ecosystems. Pollination of flowers, and dispersal of seeds of trees, shrubs, and climbers are all part of their function in the ecosystem. Besides, bat droppings in the caves they occupy support a delicate ecosystem composed of unusual organisms.
Agoramoorthy said, day roosting colonies of the Indian flying fox are often located in the temporary safety of sacred groves of the slowest reproducing mammals of their size — bats produce one young a year — bats are extremely vulnerable to extinction. “That these gentle, beneficial creatures have been widely misunderstood and neglected further adds to the danger,” he added., germination, insect bat,
With no protected natural forests suitable to sustain them, a large number of the flying fox colonies are located in unprotected agricultural land in villages. The flying fox prefers to roost in large Ficus benghalensis trees, which are located in sacred groves, and protected by the villagers.
“However, the very same bats become a fair game when once they leave their roost to forage for food. Within a mere two months, I saw hunters selling 46 bats in the local markets,” he said.
His study showed that hunting is beginning to take its toll on one of the largest bats in India. If this unscrupulous hunting continues, these intriguing bats will become locally extinct in many villages.
There are widely reported instances of the drastic decline in population, even extinction, of certain species of fruit bats, due to hunting in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.
Bat research in India has a lot of unexplored realms. “How far does a bat travel per day? What are its foraging patterns? We are yet to find out,” says Joseph.
A video showing the `flying fox' flying around the trees during sunset
Let us try to learn more and more about this nocturnal hanging mammal and secure them under a new law of wildlife protection (yet to be created)!!!!!!!!!
P S: In the last couple of years when I drove through Mumbai, I found bats in many suburbs including in Chembur where I live. I also learned that bats have been living in the suburbs for a very long time. So enjoy watching bats in the financial capital of India.
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