Indian federal government added the Wroughton's free-tailed bat (Otomops wroughtonii) and Salim Ali's fruit bat (Latidens salimalii) to the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act.

No Longer Vermin

Bats are decidedly unpopular in India. When the nation passed the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act in 1972, no bat species were granted protection, and fruit bats were cursed with the official classification of “vermin.” These environmentally vital animals may be destroyed at will. That is only now beginning to change - very slowly.

Bat conservationists in India met a year ago for a Conservation Assessment and Management Plan (CAMP) Workshop, co-sponsored by Bat Conservation International. At least partly as a result of that workshop, they have now won unprecedented protection for two “critically endangered” bat species in India.

The federal government added the Wroughton's free-tailed bat (Otomops wroughtonii) and Salim Ali's fruit bat (Latidens salimalii) to Schedule I of the wildlife act, affording these two species the highest level of protection. None of the other 112 species of bats in India was affected; they remain unprotected.

Sally Walker, founder of the Zoo Outreach Organisation in India and an organizer of the workshop, says the CAMP Workshop and its report, Status of South Asian Chiroptera (the family of bats), identified the two species as critically endangered. She says participants and other bat conservationists have undertaken a major public relations campaign to improve the image of bats in South Asia.

The main reason bats face such official disdain in India, the report concludes, is the enmity of fruit farmers, who sometimes lose a small part of their crops to fruit bats. What neither the farmers nor the government seems to understand, however, is the “tremendous role [bats] play in the ecosystem.” The fruit bats' vital contribution to forest regeneration, through their pollination and seed dispersal, the report notes, far outweighs their relatively modest damage to fruit crops.

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