THE JHARKHAND STORY NETWORK
Daltonganj, May 30: 13 people, all males, had consumed bats’ meat at village Soondipur under the Kandi block in Garhwa district. The bat eaters are in the age group of 13 to 50.
Following orders of Garhwa DC Shekhar Jamuar, a health team led by the district epidemiologist Dr Santosh Mishra reached Soondipur village. He was joined there by Dr Gobind Seth.
BDO Aftab Alam was there to coordinate. The forest team also reached there.
27 villagers examined
Speaking to this correspondent Dr Mishra said, “We have examined a total of 27 people. In the beginning, they were reluctant to share with us about their bat eating.”
“At the outset, just one male member confessed to having eaten the dead bat. I had to do counselling. It worked. 12 more came forward and made a self-confession to have eaten the dead bats. Thus 13 ate bats’ meat,” he added.
Dr Mishra said women were wiser not to eat the dead bats. It was their male members who did the most unwanted thing by eating dead bats.
The bats that died were quite meaty as they could be around one and a half kg to two kg in weight.
Dr Mishra said their being fleshy tempted the 13 to eat dead bats. There was one who cooked the dead bat but didn’t eat it. His brother obliged him by eating the dead bats.
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Kidney, liver function tests
He said samples of blood of the 13 bat eaters have been collected for complete blood count, kidney and liver function tests.
About the health of the 13 bat eaters, Dr Mishra said, “All the 13 are in good health. They have no health issues at all. They didn’t develop any symptoms like vomiting or giddiness etc, nevertheless, the local Sahiya has been asked to keep a tab on these 13 for their health.”
Over 100 bats have died
More than 100 bats have died in the past few days. Many fell dead on the ground. Dozens of them dead are still clinched to the branches of the tree. It’s the Peepal tree which was their house which is now their cemetery.
Dead bats are emanating knockdown foul and putrid odour. Some dead bats were hastily set afire too today.
About how the bats so fell dead in bulk? Dr Mishra has this to say, “It’s severe heat stroke. The heat proved enormously fatal for them as they got exposed to it.”
About the exposure, Dr Mishra said, “There was a triggering incident. Some farmers had burnt the left-out shoots of the cane sugar in their fields. It led to a heavy rise of smokes.”
“There was a beehive on a Peepal tree. The smoke disturbed the bees like anything. The swarm of bees fell for the resting bats which in turn left the branches of the trees and began to fly in panic and shock. Panic, shock and heat all combined took a toll of the bats. It’s heatwave or heat stroke that is the major cause of death of the bats,” said Dr Mishra.
Carcass of bats to be sent for test to Bhopal
On being asked if the carcass of the bats had been retrieved Dr Mishra said, “The forest people have collected the carcasses. But they are nervous as to how to send it for the lab test. There is an animal virology test centre in Bhopal. The samples of the carcass are to be sent there in all its protocols for preservation like maintenance of the temperature, ice pack etc. I have offered our health ice pack box for it. I have no idea as to how the forest people go about it.”
Credits for such a post-death scrutiny of dead bats go to the DC who has been personally monitoring and tracking this episode since last night.
Sources said Jamuar had put in BDO Aftab Alam to ensure nothing perfunctory to test or examination to the bat eaters happened. It was not. The health, forest and civil teams braving cruel summer did their jobs quite precisely and professionally.
