Commonly found in many of the Temples at Tiruvannamalai are bats. I know lots of people are turned off by bats, but since an experience some years ago when I was able to touch and handle bats, I have become a real bat aficionado. Their coat is like silk and their soft body feels quite wonderful. They are intelligent and endearingly shy. All in all a very beautiful creature.
Recently I've been spending a lot of time in the Arunagirinatha Temple at Arunachala, which has a tidy size bat colony.
Recently I've been spending a lot of time in the Arunagirinatha Temple at Arunachala, which has a tidy size bat colony.
Some of whom are resident in the Krishna Shrine which is being currently developed in the Temple Compound.
And below a couple of little friends comfortably stationed between the wooden rafters of the roof of the shrine.
"Although people squirm at the very mention of the word ‘bat’, bats are rather clean animals, and groom frequently. The myth that all bats carry the rabies virus persists. However, statistics say that only 0.5 per cent of bats contract rabies. And bats, almost as a rule, only bite in self-defence. They pose no threat to people. Worryingly, being one of the slowest reproducing mammals of their size — bats produce one young a year — bats are extremely vulnerable to extinction. That these gentle, beneficial creatures have been widely misunderstood and neglected further adds to the danger.
The Indian Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 consigned bats to schedule V as ‘vermin’. While the more glamorous animals — elephants, rhinos, lions and tigers — have received considerable attention from conservationists in the country, bats have been largely ignored in such discourses.
Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight.
The 950 species of bats found worldwide are said to have originated from one of the oldest surviving species. One of the oldest fossils, Icaronycteris, is from the early Eocene era, dating back at least 50 million years.
Bat species in India are delicately balanced on the survival scale. Attitudes towards bats, myths about them, recklesshunting, disturbance of their natural habitat and lack of legal protection are all prodding bats away from a true chance at survival."
