The Bat Family of Hyderabad

Their family trips are not about chilling at tourist spots, but thick jungles and dark subterranean caves where they look for different species of bats.

Hyderabad: You may have heard of the Batman, but then, Hyderabad has a Bat Family. This family of three exceptional scientists share a common interest in one of the most misunderstood mammals on the planet – the bats.

They talk about bats on their dinner table. Their family trips are not about chilling at tourist spots, but thick jungles and dark subterranean caves where they look for different species of bats.

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To understand this family’s passion for bats, it is important to first understand a love story. Decades back, a young college girl shuffled through multiple buses to meet a classmate. When she finally met him, something unexpected happened. She pulled out a dead bat from her bag and handed it over to him.

The young couple was Osmania University professor Dr. C Srinivasulu and his wife Dr. Bhargavi Srinivasulu. They were both pursuing their undergraduate degrees at the time and shared a keen interest in zoology.

They tied the knot at the young age of 23 years. “When we got married I was a jobless student who had just written his post-graduation exams. It was tough for both of us. I had nothing to give her as a wedding gift,” he adds.

But as fate would have it, a bat flew in when they were taking a walk after their wedding and that was his gift to her.

While it was these gestures that made bats vital in their personal life, it was their intellectual pursuits that led them to understand and eventually take steps to protect the species.

“He was already working on fruit-eating bats while I was doing my Ph.D. There was and still is a significant lack of researchers studying this species. When he suggested that I study insect-eating bats, I took it up as I became interested in them by then,” says Dr. Bhargavi, who is an independent researcher.

The couple then spent a significant amount of time on several field trips trying to identify and study the bats. Accompanying them on their adventures, was their son Aditya Srinivasulu.

“I loved going on these trips with them. I would say I had the most awesome childhood and it is sure helping me today in my career,” says Aditya, who is currently pursuing his Ph.D. in the UK where he is trying to understand the effect of climate change on bats in South Asia.

Bat Conservation:

Bats are some of the most misunderstood mammals on the planet Earth. Some say they are blind and others believe that they bring bad luck.
But Dr. Srinivasulu and Dr. Bhargavi points out that bats play a vital role in maintaining the balance in our ecosystem.

Some plants depend partly or wholly on certain bat species to pollinate their flowers and many other bats help control insects by feeding on them.
Due to their consistent efforts, an entire area in Karnataka was declared as a conservation site as the government plans to formulate a plan to save the Kolar Leaf-Nosed Bats found in the caves of the Kolar district.