“You might think some of these are AI-generated or a different animal species but I want you to tell me if these are bats,” Rohit Chakravarty, asks a room of full people sipping wine, cocktails and beers.
He proceeded to show a series of pictures featuring tiny wrinkly faces, lopsided heads and creatures that frankly looked like bat faces photoshopped on guinea pigs. Turns out most of them were various species of bats.
With this, Rohit became the first speaker at Pint of View on August 24, 2025. Inspired by a similar concept in the United States titled, Lectures on Tap, this event sees researchers from various fields talk about their work in informal settings.
“My first encounter with this species was rescuing a fruit bat tangled up in manja (kite thread) when I was young. While caring for it, I realised everything I had been told about this gentle creature was wrong. It was not biting me or sucking my blood, neither was it flying into my hair. The only thing it wanted to do was eat all the mangoes,” he tells the crowd.
A bat project manager at Nature Conservation Foundation and Bat Conservation International, Rohit began the lecture with the number of bat species, diets, life expectancy and evolution, before moving onto more interesting behaviours exhibited by these mammals.
For instance, did you know that vampire bats, found in Central and South America, share their food (animal blood) with other bats who are starving? Rodrigues fruit bats show behaviour similar to midwifing where female bats have been seen to help and care during childbirth.
Rohit next spoke about Lazaro Spallanzani, a priest and Italian biologist who first discovered that bats used sound to hunt and navigate, instead of relying on sight in 1794. He noticed that blinded bats were still able to navigate, however, if the creatures’ hearing was impaired, they lost their bearing.
Two centuries later, this was confirmed by American zoologist Donald Griffin and his colleagues who recorded the ultrasonic sounds emitted by bats. Their experiments showed that bats ascertain their surroundings while generating these sounds and coined the term ‘echolocation.’
Rohit talked about the various places he has studied these tiny creatures, ranging from limestone caves in the rainforests of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the lofty Himalayas, to the unexplored caves of Meghalaya and the ruins of Tughlakabad in Delhi.
Rohit’s most recent work was the discovery of a brand new species called the Himalayan Long-tailed Myotis.
| Photo Credit:
Shoaib Kalsekar
His most recent work was the discovery of a brand new species called the Himalayan long-tailed myotis, found in the Western Himalayas ranging from Uttarakhand to Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Rohit’s slideshow of bat species include the golden-tinged little tube-nosed bat, the endangered horseshoe bats endemic to the Andamans, the peculiar-looking Kolar leaf-nosed bat, Nicobar flying bat, Salim Ali’s fruit bat and more.
“Bats extensively help with the pollination of agave plants which are used to make tequila,” he says.
He highlights how bats, despite their infamy, are great pollinators, especially for mangroves which act as a natural barrier against tsunamis, cyclones and storms. He narrated an example from Cambodia where dried leaves are arranged in a drooping manner so bats can roost. At night, these bats hunt pests in surrounding rice fields and their droppings are used as fertiliser.
Rohit pointed out threats the mammal faces, and mentioned how the Kolar leaf-nosed bat was on the verge of extinction due to granite mining in the region.
He shared how one can stay safe around these animals while co-existing with them. “Bats are already great at social distancing. Give them space and do not touch or handle them. Secondly, do not eat fallen fruit as there are high chances their saliva could contain deadly viruses that could be infectious. Thirdly, stay away from bat faeces and keep your pets away from them too,” he says.
“Many neglected species such as bats and moths, get little attention. I believe it is our responsibility as scientists to spread awareness and one way to do that is to talk to people in informal settings.”
Organisers Harsh Snehanshu and Shruti Sah are also the co-founders of Cubbon Reads. They are joined by Meghna Chaudhary, who is a machine learning engineer.
| Photo Credit:
Shoaib Kalsekar
The minds behind Pint of View — Harsh Snehanshu and Shruti Sah —have a history of building communities through shared interests and curious minds. They co-founded Cubbon Reads and have also created apps, which bring people together through writing or reading. They are joined by Meghna Chaudhary, who is a machine learning engineer.
“We have tried to find researchers who work on the intersection of things,” says Shruti. “Bengaluru is full of techies and corporate workers and we realised that people who were curious about things in college had to leave that behind. We wanted to create a space where people could engage more mindfully.”
Harsh points out that though lectures are mostly regimented and formal, events such as Pint of View show people can engage intellectually in a relaxed setting as well.
Pint of View will be back on September 7, 2025, with a lecture on textiles, memories and history with fashion researcher Niyati Hirani. Details of upcoming talks can be found at @pintofview.club. Tickets on Urbanaut.
Published – September 01, 2025 02:16 pm IST
