Sowing destruction, reaping Nipah

Dawn was already approaching, and the fruit bat hadn’t had its fill yet. It swooped low over Dasappan’s orchard, filled with big, sturdy mango trees. Almost all the trees were bare of fruit. The early rains and the unpredictable weather had taken a toll on the mango crop that season, and Dasappan hadn’t waited too long before harvesting the precious few mangoes (which still amounted to around 10 quintals) that had managed to grow to the size of his fist. A few trees still had some fruit hidden deep among the layers of leaves.

The fruit bat, unlike other bats, did not hunt by echolocation, that rare power that enabled the blind bats to sense their surroundings by letting out sound waves and judging objects and distance by their echoes. The fruit bat on the other hand, was well equipped with a strong sense of smell and good vision, and only needed to sniff out the delicious golden fruit hanging from the inner branches.

The bat darted from tree to tree in search of the elusive fruit. The sky was already filling up with a pinkish glow, the first rays of the morning sun gradually touching every rooftop and every tree. The bat knew it had to hurry back to the ruined temple which hordes of them had made their home. But it was feeling, oh, so hungry! Everyday, it was a challenge to find food, and finding enough food to suppress its growing hunger was out of question.

The beautiful Kerala countryside that had once been home to luscious green jungles that housed a variety of flora and fauna, were falling prey to the ruthless real estate giants that cut down acres of trees mercilessly. Additionally, the ill-informed townsfolk made it all the more difficult for their species, by cutting down trees or thinning them by cutting off their dense branches in order to get rid of the bat colonies that had made them their haven.

Noises of approaching men could be heard. It seemed like the labourers on the orchard had arrived. The bat hurried up in its search, but it was beginning to feel weak and sick. Even hunting and foraging had become a pain for its comrades in the last few months. It was the breeding season, but lack of food, and the increasing stress for space and habitat had taken a toll on them. Several of them were dying, and several more were becoming weaker by the day.

Just when the bat thought of flying back home, it spotted a ripe yellow mango half hidden by the foliage in one of the trees. It descended on its legs on the branch above it, and hung upside down to bite into the sweet flesh of the mango. The inviting, but slightly acidic smell of the fruit hung in the air while the voices of the men could be heard nearby now.

“The boy ate some fruit without washing it, I heard”, said one. “Maybe the fruit was lying on the ground and some snake passed over it.” “Oh, nonsense! We’ve all been eating stuff off the ground since our childhood. Does the venom of the snake let you stay alive for a week? And anyway, Kannan said that the boy had taken some fruit off the trees of this very orchard, along with his friends. That’s the only thing that he ate out of the regular way.” “Then why aren’t the other boys affected?” retorted the first man, indignant that he had been snubbed for his earlier view.

“Nobody knows. The doctors say now that it is a new disease with no cure, and it is spread by bats. The doctor suspects that the boy ate a fruit that was half eaten by a bat. It’s quite possible that the fruits eaten by the other boys were untouched”, said another man who hadn’t spoken till then.
“Ah, yes, I heard that version too. It has a strange name….. Nipah, isn’t it? The Nipah virus. They say the disease first affected people in Malaysia and then in Bangladesh, and was in fact spread by pigs. Now they say bats”, said the second man again.

“But tell me, haven’t we all eaten fruits that were pecked at by the birds and bats and squirrels in the region all our life? Did anything happen to us? No! There must have been something else wrong with the boy, mark my words.” “Does it matter now? All that matters is that poor Kannan lost his only son. And we’ve got to be careful too, I heard his wife is down with the same fever now. Better not go and visit them to express our sympathies”, said the first man.

“You are right. Sympathies expressed from the heart can be felt, irrespective of whether we go in person or we wish them from the comfort of our homes. I am sure Kannan will understand.”
The voices were very close now, and the sun was already high in the sky. The bat prepared to fly back to its regular haunt, and hoped that the labourers wouldn’t notice it. But weak that it was, even the meal of a ripe mango could not give it the energy to fly.

It flew a few meters, faltered, and fell weakly just a little ahead of where the men were standing. One of the labourers spotted it and rushed ahead. “Look, a bat! We’ve got to kill it”, he exclaimed, and taking hold of a nearby branch, thrashed the bat into pulp.

“There, now”, the other men clicked their tongues in approval. “We can’t let these bats live. Good that you killed it; or else it would spread the disease even more”, one of them remarked. “Hey, you three! You’re already late for work! What are you gossiping about? Come here and help me with the coconuts”, it was Dasappan’s shrill voice. “Shirking work all the time”, he grumbled under his breath. He advanced towards them to give them a piece of his mind, but stopped short seeing the crumpled form of the fruit bat on the ground. “What’s this? Oh, a bat!”

“Yes sir, we killed it”, one of the three men said, hoping to divert Dasappan enough. “That deadly virus is going around, and it’s best if we get rid of these vermin.” “Of course”, Dasappan nodded in agreement. He seemed thoughtful for a while. “Cut down the trees and the undergrowth in the western region of my land. It has become a shelter for bats like this one on one hand and reptiles on the other. This is the best way to get rid of both. After all, where will the bats go if there are no trees to sit in? They will die and disappear.”

The men did not say a word. They set about their work obediently in Dasappan’s land, unaware that their actions were placing nature’s balance, and their lives, in grave danger.