Dispelling Myths Around Bats in Kerala | 15 Apr 2024

Recently, researchers from Kerala have training programs on bat taxonomy, acoustics, and biogeography.

Myth, superstition, and zoonotic diseases such as Covid-19 and the Nipah virus infection, have created a negative impression of bats.
The project aims to address the challenges posed by emerging zoonotic diseases and the ongoing threats faced by bat populations, including habitat loss and the cutting down of fruit bat roosts.
Researchers in Kerala are also supporting the ongoing National Bat Monitoring Programme, which has been running since 1996.
- It gives us the information needed to help bat conservation.

Bats:

India is home to 135 bat species. Bats are nocturnal animals.
Bats normally feed on fruits, helping in pollination by seed dispersal but also cause agricultural losses and hence are regarded as vermin.
The population of bats has declined worldwide due to poaching, meat consumption, use in traditional medicines, climate change, environmental pollution, and biological invasions.