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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

28/10/22 12:48 PM IST

Khangkhui Cave In Manipur

In News 
  • The forest officials denied the planned extermination of the colony of bats from a Manipur cave system as stated by the zoological study.
Khangkhui Cave 
  • The Khangkhui Cave is a natural limestone cave locally called as Khangkhui Mangsor.
  • Khangkhui Mangsor caves consists of four major caves.
  • The cave was used as a shelter by the local people during World War II, after the Japanese forces advanced to Manipur and the adjoining Nagaland.
  • The folklore of the Tangkhul community, believed the cave was the abode of a protective deity.
  • The cave housed large populations of bats belonging to the Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae families.
  • Researchers recorded Blyth’s horseshoe bat in the Khangkhui cave which was one of 12 new species added to Manipur’s mammals.
  • Archaeologists have discovered many important artefacts, dating back to the Palaeolithic culture from this cave.
Horseshoe bat
  • Horseshoe bats, (genus Rhinolophus), are any of more than 100 species of large-eared insect-eating bats.
  • The researchers recorded Blyth’s horseshoe bat in the Khangkhui cave during two extensive field surveys covering nine districts of Manipur in 2019 and 2021.
  • This bat was one of 12 new species added to Manipur’s mammalian fauna.
  • IUCN Status: Over a third of bat species are considered threatened or data deficient.
Importance of Bats
  • Bats play an essential role in pest control, and pollinating plants.
  • In the tropics and subtropics, bats act as very efficient seed dispersers and are responsible for much of the regeneration of forests following deforestation.

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