Tamil Nadu villages skip firecrackers to protect roosting bats

CHENNAI: In several villages across Tamil Nadu, Diwali is celebrated without firecrackers — to protect hundreds of fruit bats that roost in banyan and tamarind trees.

Villagers consider the bats neighbours and protectors, not pests. Loud crackers can alarm colonies and force them to abandon roosts, affecting seed dispersal and pollination.

In Kazhuperumpakkam near Vanur, families began feeding bats on a tamarind tree and placing water vessels in its branches. The panchayat later banned firecrackers. In Perambur near Mayiladuthurai, the Vavvaal Thoppu (bat grove) banyan is considered sacred, and villagers have avoided crackers for over a century.

Similar traditions continue in Thoppupatti and Saampatti in Tiruchy district, and in Kalapattu near Katpadi, where the practice has lasted three generations.

In Kittampalayam near Coimbatore, around 350 families agreed to avoid firecrackers after a school conservation programme in 2012 introduced students to a colony of 2,000 Indian flying foxes.