A rare orange-coloured bat, also known as ‘painted bat’ and characterised by bright orange and black wings, was spotted at a banana plantation in Parali Bodal village of Chhattisgarh’s Kanger Valley National Park in Bastar.
Its scientific name is ‘Kerivoula picta’.
It is generally found in Bangladesh, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
In India, it has already been spotted in the Western Ghats, Kerala, Maharashtra and Odisha.
This national park is famous for its limestone caves, which also provide a suitable habitat for the bats.
There are about 131 species of bats in the country, of which 31 are found in central India.
