May

27,
2018
INDIAN FLYING FOX
Since the Nipah virus broke out in Kozhikode, Kerala, Indian Flying fox (fruit bats) have
attracted attention as the wildlife reservoir for the virus.
Indian Flying Fox:

• Scientific Name: Pteropus giganteus.

• Common name: Greater Indian fruit bat.
• Physical Description:
o It is India's largest bat and one of the largest
bats in the world, weighing up to 1.6 kg.
o It ranges in color, with a black back that is
lightly streaked with grey, a pale, yellow-
brown mantle, a brown head, and dark,
brownish underparts.
o It has no facial ornamentation—a typical appearance for a species of the genus Pteropus.
• Diet: Although initially thought to be strictly frugivorous (eating fruits) or nectarivorous (drinking
nectar from flowers), it has been observed deliberately eating insects and leaves.
• Distribution: This species is largely found in South Asia, but
also occurs in adjacent China and Southeast Asia.
• Habitat: This species roosts in large colonies of hundreds to
thousands of individuals on large trees in rural and urban areas,
close to agricultural fields, ponds and by the side of roads.
• Ecological Significance: Bats provide huge ecological and
economic services.
o Without insectivorous bats, farmers would lose billions
to pest insects.
o Fruit bats are also important pollinators and seed
dispersers in tropical forests.
• IUCN status: It is Listed as Least Concern (LC) in view of its wide
distribution, presumed large population, occurance in a
number of protected areas and has a tolerance of a degree of habitat modification.
• Current Population Trend (acc. to IUCN status): Decreasing.
• Major threats:
o According to IUCN, there appear to be no major threats to this species as a whole.
o The Indian government has listed the specie as vermin – species that can be legally removed
or killed – under Schedule V of the Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act as it "poaches" ripe fruit
from orchards.

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o This species is assumed to be locally threatened by cutting down of roosting trees because
of road expansion or other purposes. The species is also hunted in several locations for meat
and for medicine.
o Bats are also prone to fatally colliding with wind turbine blades as several wind power
projects are coming up in India, particularly in Gujarat and in the Western Ghats.
• Conservation Actions: This species is listed on Appendix II of CITES.
• Disease transmission:
o Science has proven that bats are carriers of disease — they are linked to the spread of
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in China, MERS in Saudi Arabia, Ebola in Africa,
and most recently Indian flying foxes have tested positive for Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala.
o This means the virus survives in the bat’s body without causing disease, allowing it to jump
to susceptible mammals like humans or pigs, when bats come in contact with them.
o The bigger question is how bats stay healthy despite carrying these pathogens. One
hypotheses — the “flight as fever” hypothesis — suggests that long periods of flying raises
the temperatures of bats, boosting their immune responses. This helps them survive the
microbes’ pathogenic effects.

Do you know?
• With around 1,200 species, bats comprise 20% of the earth’s mammalian diversity.
• India has no less than 128 species of bats — yet very little is known about their population status,
their behaviour, or their role in the spread of zoonotic disease.
• Most species are listed as ‘data deficient’ in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The Kolar
leaf-nosed bat is classified as critically endangered and Salim Ali’s fruit bat is classified as
endangered in the Red List.
INNER LINE PERMIT (ILP)
In May 2018, several districts of Arunachal Pradesh conducted drives against ‘ILP violators’
– those without the Inner Line Permit (ILP) – which led to more than 350 people being
pushed out from the state.
About:

• A British-era system, the ILP is a travel document that Indian citizens need to possess to enter the
frontier States of north-eastern India: Aruanchal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland.
• It is issued under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873, to regulate the movement of people
who do not belong to these States.
• The ILP is valid for a week, but can be extended. People who frequent these States for work can opt
for a special ILP renewable annually.

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LIGHTNING
In May 2018, the Odisha State government decided to revive the traditional practice of
planting palm trees to deal with the issue of deaths caused by lightning every year.
Palm trees, being the tallest ones, act as a good conductor when lightning strikes.
About:

• Lightning is a giant spark of electricity in the atmosphere between clouds, the air, or the ground.
• Formation of lightning:
o Air generally acts as an insulator between the positive and negative charges in the cloud and
between the cloud and the ground.
o But when the opposite charges build up enough, this insulating capacity of the air breaks
down and there is a rapid discharge of electricity that we know as lightning.
• It is of three broad types:
o Cloud to ground (CG): Lightning originates in atmosphere and terminates on the ground.
o Ground to cloud (GC): it involves upward propagation of lightning initiated from a tall
grounded object and reaches into the clouds. It is the least common type.
o Cloud to cloud (CC): In this discharges only occur high in the atmosphere. The bulk of
lightning events are cloud to cloud (CC).
• Lightning rod: It is used to mitigate lightning damage and influence the path of a lightning flash. It is
a metal strip or rod connected to earth through conductors and a grounding system, used to provide
a preferred pathway to ground if lightning terminates on a structure.
• Lightning can cause injuries in several ways:
o Direct strike: Victims may sustain a direct strike, which is often fatal.
o Contact injury: This occurs when lightning strikes an object, such as a car or metal pole, that
the victim is touching.
o Side flash: This occurs when lightning splashes or bounces off an object, such as a tree or
person, onto the victim.
o Ground current: This occurs when lightning strikes the ground near a victim and the ground
current passes from the strike point through the ground and into the victim.
• Lightning related deaths in india:
o According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, Lightning kills more people in
India than any other natural calamity like flood, cyclone, heat waves and earthquake.
o Regions most affected: Eastern states of Assam, West Bengal and Odisha report the highest
fatalities due to lightning. North-eastern states, Maharashtra, Kerala, Jharkhand and Bihar
also suffer heavy casualties.

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NANOZYME
In May 2018, a team of researchers from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru
successfully synthesized a Nanozyme.
About:

• Nanzymes are Nanomaterials that can behave like human enzymes. They produced the new
nanozyme by using vanadium pentoxide nanocrystals of just 150-200 nm size.
• The nanozyme was able to act like the natural antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase in our
body and help maintain the hydrogen peroxide levels within the threshold.
• Nanozymes with tunable catalytic properties are emerging as the next generation of artificial
enzymes that find applications in neuroprotection, cardioprotection and cancer therapy.

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