BATS & PEOPLE:- HARMONY WITH CONFLICT
Posted on Wednesday, May 09 @ 13:39:39 BST by jenvetadmin
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Kullu, a hilly district of North India, also known as the valley of gods has got so many attractions like tourism, horticulture, beautiful locations, temples, unique local culture, shawls, river Beas, Great Himalayan National Park etc.
The local people rear animals like sheep, goat, cattle, dogs, equines and buffaloes etc. The beautiful birds like Monal, Western Tragopan and animals like leopards, bears and Gorals form an attractive component of the wild life of this area.
There are also birds like crows, pigeons, and sparrows etc. which live commonly in the residential areas. At places where there is co-existence of humans and animals, we may also find human-animal conflicts of varying kinds and degrees.
In this area also we observed various kinds of human-animal conflicts like human-stray cattle conflict (very common), human-stray dog conflict (very common), human-stray equine conflict (occassional), human-leopard conflict (occasional), human-monkey conflict (common), human-bear conflict (occasional), human-snake conflict (occasional) etc..
In all these kinds of conflicts, people often try to resolve the conflicts in legal, humane or sometimes also inhumane and illegal ways to get rid of the problems.
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Amongst all these situations of human-animal conflict in this area, we also observe a marvelous example of LIVING IN HARMONY WITH CONFLICT during the time period from last week of April upto October every year.
The Fruit bats of Pteropus giganteus species roost every year during this part of year at Shamshi in the campus of GHNP and Parvati forest division on the trees of Populus and Alnus species.
The nearby flowing river Beas, plenty of Populus trees & enough space in the campus, fruits in the surrounding area, congenial climate and of course negligible human disturbance are the probable attractions that compel them to roost at this site every year.
These flying mammals start migrating here during the last week of April, live here for about six months and start migrating out of this location in the month of October.
Although these bats do not attack directly on human beings but the troubles faced by the residents of nearby localities are in the form of typical continuous chap-chap noise, risk of zoonoses, soiling of the ground with bat faeces and the nuisance that they feel most unbearable is the damage to fruit crops.
The farmers feel irritated when they see the bats eating and spoiling fruits but still we do not observe anybody harming or killing the bats perhaps because they do understand their role and importance in pollination, eating insects along with the fruits and reducing breeding places for the insects (over-ripen fruits etc.) that otherwise might cause more damage directly and indirectly to the people of area in the absence of these flying foxes.
This example of harmonious living in human-animal conflict can be a sigh of relief for the people working in the direction of wild-life conservation.
Working vets : Dr. Sanjeev Kumari Paul,* Dr. Rajender Paul*
Working foresters: Dr. Harsh Mitter**, Sh. Labh Singh,** Sh.G.S. Chandel***
* Veterinary Polyclinic Bhuntar, Kullu, H. P., India
** Great Himalayan National Park, Shamshi, Kullu, H.P., India
*** Parvati Forest Division, Shamshi, Kullu, H.P., India
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