Bats may be unwelcome elsewhere in view the dreaded Nipah virus (NiV) spread by them. But residents of Jarugumalli village in Prakasam district provide safe haven to the Chiroptera as they enjoy a symbiotic relationship with them.
Sentimentally attached to the bats, the residents visit the trees before leaving the village to do any important work and revisit the trees on which they hang upside down as thanksgiving.
Showing hundreds of bats clinging on to the tamarind trees in the village, a group of villagers say: “Bats go in search of prey at dusk and return to the trees at dawn. We don’t harm them and do not allow outsiders to do so also.” Recalling the devastating cyclonic storm in 1977 that uprooted a good number of trees, they add: “We take every effort to save the leftover tamarind trees on which they stay during day time.”
“The bats contribute their mite by eating pests in farms, by pollinating plants and by spilling seeds of fruit-bearing trees across,” 70-year-old D. Venkatram Reddy, who owns a mango orchard, explains.
“In those good old days, these nocturnal animals used to come in thousands to my village and now their numbers have reduced,” he laments.
Prakasam District Medical and Health Officer S. Rajyalakshmi wants people to avoid fruits half eaten by bats or other animals.
They should also avoid contact with pigs as they can carry the dreaded virus as well, she said.
People cautioned
An alert has been sounded to all Public Health Centres (PHCs) to refer any patients with suspected symptoms of NiV to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), where an isolation ward has been set up by the authorities.
“We are fully geared to meet any emergency situation,” she says, adding no case been reported from anywhere in the district so far.
