Inauspicious Animals In Sacred Places

Misconceived as harbingers of evil in India, bats and owls suffer from habitat loss due to human intervention and conservation efforts need to be ramped up.

- Yatish Lele

Chiropterans are among the most mysterious and lesser-known taxa found in the world. A total of more than 1100 Species are distributed across the world,out of which 117 species are found in the Indian subcontinent. The Western Ghats harbours almost 52 species of bats, accounting for more than 50% of the total species found in the subcontinent, and is highly inimitable. Bats are distributed throughout the Western Ghats owing to the availability of habitat and preference of their roosts which usually includes trees, caves, rock crevices, bamboo thickets, old temples, quarries, wetlands, farms and so on.

LEAGUE OF SHADOWS

In October 2014, during a visit to Sindhudurg district in Maharashtra, colonies of bats were observed to be roosting in the ancient Vimleshwar temple. The bats were photo-documented using a hand-held digital camera and were further identified to be Leschenault’s rousette Fruit Bat (Rousettus leschenaultii) and Tomb Bats (