BERHAMPUR: The Ganjam district administration has made arrangements to spray water on trees where bats have taken shelter near Pudamari, about 50 km from here, after a few died of extreme heat recently. Around 3,000 bats have made huge trees in Kansamari and Dharmapur villages under Pudamari forest range their home.
"We immediately wrote to collector (Ganjam) P C Chaudhary to ask fire service personnel to spray water on the trees to save the bats from the scorching heat after villagers drew our attention to the death of mammals," said divisional forest officer (Paralakhemundi) R K Singh.
The forest personnel from Digapahandi would continue to spray water on the bats till the heatwave recedes. "Villagers believe death of bats is an ill omen," said zilla parishad member O P Sahu.
A few days ago, villagers strongly opposed cutting down of the trees by personnel of the forest department for repair and widening of the road under a World Bank funded programme.
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