At a time when Nipah virus scare has gripped the country 每 and every bat is under scrutiny 每 this woman from Rajpur village, about 50 km from Ahmedabad, has no plans of being separated from about 400 winged mammals that live in her two-room house.
Villagers call Shantaben Prajapati, 74, ＆chamachidiyawala ba＊ (grandma living with bats).
※I have heard of Nipah but I am not afraid. I have been living with bats for a decade now. They are my family. Their population inside my house has proliferated after I shifted from inside my house to the courtyard for preparing meals and sleeping.
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The interiors only have a few belongings,§ says Prajapati, who opens the door to show the ＆bat colony＊ occupying all four walls on the ground and the first floor.
It started about a decade ago when a group of bats made one of her unplastered walls their home. At first she was scared as the bats -- identified by experts as greater mouse-tailed bats 每 used to fly in the night and come back again early morning and soiled her floor with droppings. Huddled together like a small bundle, they dotted the entire house.
But Prajapati had no one to share her home with as her three daughters 每 Jyotsna, Chandrika and Kanchan 每 are married, and her son Dinesh lives in Mumbai.
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Prajapati had raised her kids by working as a farm labourer after her husband Kanjibhai died due to electrocution when she was 30.
To fight the stench, Shantaben burns incense of neem and camphor twice a day while collecting a bucketful of droppings.
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※A few nearby residences also had a few bats living there. But they were quick to get rid of them through chemical treatment. I cannot do it. They will leave when they have to. Who am I to decide their fate?§ she asks.
She says she will not part with them till her death. Her affection for the bats has also been subject of a documentary by a Delhi-based film student in 2015.?
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Madina Bibi Sipai, sarpanch of Rajpur, says the affection is indeed unique as people get repulsed by bats and even consider them inauspicious. ※A number of villagers have volunteered to get rid of the bat menace from Shantaben's house but she is not game.
In fact, she has earned the sobriquet of ＆Chamachidiyawala＊ for her affection and emotional attachment with the mammals,§ she says. Experts said so far spread of Nipah virus is found to be carried by some species of fruit bats. Other bats, including mouse-tailed bats, are not found to be carriers of the virus.