‘Bat habitats in South Western Ghats lie predominantly outside protected areas’  

Study points to increased concerns among people towards having bat colonies near their homes, post the COVID-19 pandemic

A recent study indicates that more than 50% of habitats suitable for 37 species of bats in the Southern Western Ghats lie outside protected areas, potentially increasing threats faced by the animals due to poaching for their meat, habitat loss and stigma from local communities, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study was published in the Journal of Mammalogy recently. The authors of the paper, Sreehari Raman, T.T. Shameer, Ushakumari Pooja and Alice C. Hughes, based their study area around 1,600 km of the Southern Western Ghats, encompassing biodiverse regions in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Six major biodiversity hotspots— Agastyamalai, Periyar Tiger Reserve, Anamalai, the Nilgiris, the Wayanad-Mudumalai complex and Brahmagiri— were part of the study area. According to the researchers, the Southern Western Ghats was home to rare and endangered bat species such as Salim Ali’s fruit bat (Latidens salimalii) and the Pomona roundleaf bat (Hipposideros pomona).

Mr. Raman, assistant professor at college of forestry, Kerala Agriculture University, said seven of the 37 bat species studied in the region had broad distribution ranges exceeding 20,000 square km, 19 species had intermediate distribution ranges between 10,000 and 20,000 square km, and 11 species were restricted to ranges less than 10,000 square km. Worryingly, only two species of bats had a distribution range that was significantly located in protected areas. Meanwhile, the distribution ranges of 35 other species lay primarily outside protected areas, he said.

“Different species had different percentages of their ranges protected: five had less than 10% protection; six had between 10% and 20% protection; 10 had between 20% and 30% protection; 14 had between 30% and 40% protection; and two had between 40% and 50% protection. Moreover, potential suitable areas of forest-dependent species were mostly found to be in unprotected areas,” the researchers noted. “The study will hopefully help local governments and forest departments come up with conservation plans to protect bat species across the Western Ghats,” said Dr. Shameer, one of the authors of the paper and a wildlife biologist from the molecular biodiversity lab of the department of zoology and wildlife biology, Government Arts College in Udhagamandalam.

Mr. Shameer said that threats to bat species were increasing. “While bats like the Salim Ali’s fruit bat continued to be hunted for their meat, there have also been reports of people’s attitudes towards bats deteriorating since the COVID-19 pandemic due to misplaced concerns of having bat colonies near human settlements. People are increasingly coming to believe that the chances of them contracting zoonotic diseases increases due to presence of bats near their houses. Identifying these populations of bats outside protected areas could help forest conservation authorities spread awareness among human communities on the importance of bats to ecology and the environment,” he added.