Fig 1: Bat species richness in India,
Source:(IUCN,Batsworld.com)
Shifting of Bat colonies near human inhabitation : There has
been a shift of bats population over the years. As a result of an ever
increasing population, urbanization and deforestation, declining
biodiversity, the colonies of bats trying to adapt and nest in the human
inhabited village and city settlements and environments, in vicinity of
human inhabitation areas (Jung and Threlfall, 2018; Li et al., 2019).
Typically diverse environmental conditions are generated close to the
human populations due to the above mentioned reasons, these changed
environmental conditions makes it suitable for a diverse range of bat
species to live and thrive there, not seen there before (Walsh et al.,
2017; Jung and Threlfall, 2018), easy access to food could be the
reason. Because of this, both the bat species number and the viruses
present in bats will automatically increase. The luminous lightings of
the houses attract bats in search of insects and pests. Fruit eating
bats are attracted towards gardens and fields. The dark areas in the
house and barns attract the bats which live in caves.
When a number of bat species interact amongst themselves, their viruses
also interact and are passed from one another, theses deadly viruses
will then be transferred to the human beings through different means
such as: direct hands contact, contamination of potable ground water by
bat faeces or urine, and infection to domesticated animals (Jung and
Threlfall, 2018). Also the characteristics that are very unique and
specific in bats such as gathering or assemblage during the roosting
process, their feeding practices and a very resilient immune systems
help in the continued accumulation and mixing of different viruses in
their body that may lead to formation of RNA viruses that are highly
dangerous, recombinant, novel mutant, and reassortant (Chan et al.,
2013).