Asia-Pacific, Biodiversity, Environment, Headlines

ENVIRONMENT: Rare Bats Left Unprotected

Malini Shankar

BANGALORE, May 18 2009 (IPS) - A rare species of bats is in danger in western India because it has been denied Protected Area status.

The Barpete cave ecosystem that houses Wroughton's free tailed bats is located in the Western Ghats, which is a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) world biological heritage site. These bats are found also in North-eastern India and in Cambodia, but it is only here that they are found nesting and breeding in the same place.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has declared the species critically endangered in 2001, 2006 and 2007.

The government of the Karnataka state in south-western India has not yet declared the cave ecosystem a Protected Area. Such a declaration would mean upgrading the policing, and limit mining and construction. It would in effect prevent damming of the local Mahadayi River that the state government is considering.

"Mining around the cave and nearby regions, and the Mahadayi Dam construction which would submerge the cave in the reservoir of the dam, are the greatest threats to this fragile ecosystem," says zoologist Vijay Kupwade.

The bat would be most threatened. "Nothing is more fascinating than a rarity," J.C. Daniel from the Bombay Natural History Society told IPS. "This insectivorous bat is perhaps one of the rarest of the world's mammals."

First discovered in 1913, these rare inhabitants of the Barpete Caves, about 600 km north-west of Bangalore were found roosting in the crevices of the roof of the caves, and within its holes and domes. The species was also found in 2000 in Chep district in Cambodia, close to the border with Laos and Thailand.

A 2003 study by Kupwade figured there were between 167 and 185 of these bats within the cave ecosystem that is about 45 metres long, between 20 and 24 metres wide and about six metres high.

"They do not emerge out of the cave en masse at dusk like other bats," says Kupwade. "Initially before sunset three to six bats circle in the cave to assess the light conditions. After a few minutes of recce they inform other bats through ultra-sound about safety."

The very caves that house these bats are unique. They are found in the fragile Shola ecosystem in a five-square kilometre area.

The Sholas around the caves support tigers, black panthers, leopards, black bears, deer, elephants, cobras and pythons, among other wild life. But it is the bats that are in immediate danger of extinction.

The forest office has made a strong plea for preservation. "The area in the radius of five kilometres surrounding the Bhimgad/Barpete caves where Wroughton's Free Tailed Bats are found, shall not be disturbed either by way of any extraction of timber, firewood or minor forest produce or by way of any plantation being introduced in the area," the forest office said in an inspection report last year. "Special care has to be taken to prevent forest fire in the area:"

"This species is threatened by disturbance and destruction of roosting sites and persecution by local people," the IUCN says. "It is used for subsistence food and medicinal purposes in parts of its range. There is a need to protect important roosting sites for this species throughout its range. Additional field surveys, studies into distribution, abundance, breeding biology, general ecology and population monitoring of this species are needed."