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Source: The post is based on the article “Bats evicted from prehistoric Manipur cave for tourism: Study” published in The Hindu on 27th October 2022
What is the News?
According to a study by researchers, a colony of bats were evicted from Khangkhui cave in Manipur to make it tourist-friendly.
About Khangkhui Cave
Khangkhui is a natural limestone cave about 15 km from Ukhrul, the headquarters of Ukhrul district in Manipur.
Excavations carried out by Manipur’s archaeologists had revealed the cave was home to Stone Age communities.
The cave was also used as a shelter by the local people during World War 2 after the Japanese forces advanced to Manipur and the adjoining Nagaland.
About the study
Khangkhui Cave housed large populations of bats belonging to the Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae families.
However, these bats were killed and evicted from the Khangkhui cave after 2016-17 purportedly to make it “more tourist-friendly”.
But the divisional Forest Officer of the area denied any such killing of bats.
