The planet Earth has come to a stand-still and everyone in any part of the world is under partial or complete lockdown. Such conditions have never prevailed in the history of human civilisation. The deadly Corona virus disease is to blame for. The deadly Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was reported for the very first time in December 2019, in Wuhan province of China (Khan et al., 2020). The COVID-19 after that rapidly spread from its epicentre globally and now is decisively recognised as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (World Health Organization, 2020). It has become a major threat to world health, fauna, economy and environment. The higher transmissibility of the deadly SARS-CoV-2, the lack of proper designated, designed treatment and vaccines, and the unstoppable transmission of infection have now caused a major global health emergency, scared then public, and psychological stress among the people almost in every country of the world. (Cohen and Kupferschmidt, 2020). Similar to SARS-CoV-2, other viruses such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (SARS-CoV), The dangerous Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV), The Marburg virus, and the dangerous Ebola virus, have also caused major outbreaks in recent history. A number of deaths have been caused by such ourbreaks and its eradication, vaccination and control will cost billions of dollars, worldwide (Allocati et al., 2016; Fan et al., 2019).
Primary source of Virus: Bats are blamed for this deadly disease transmission. Such viruses are reported to have been naturally found in bats, especially coronaviruses (CoVs) which make up approximately, 31% of their virome studies by (Allocati et al., 2016; Afelt et al., 2018). Humans are infected by these varises either by direct consumption or contact or through even by the intermediate hosts (Chan et al., 2013; Allocati et al., 2016). Their higher diversity in species (over 1400), They have a very high resistance to viral infections, longer lifespan (over 30 years) and also the fact that they migrate makes them a major reservoir for pathogens and therefore their chances to transmit pathogens to other species is very high in large areas (Allocati et al., 2016; Frick et al., 2019; Banerjee et al., 2020). Nearly 5717 bat-associated animal viruses were detected by the year 2016, in a total of 207 bat species, in 77 different countries (Allocati et al., 2016). The nocturnal and solitary species characteristics of bats make they very difficult to study (Frick et al., 2019). It is highly likely that a number of dangerous and deadly viruses may be present in different bat species which have not been found and studies so far. There is a need for regular and efficient monitoring, studying and surveillance in localities where in human beings and bats share a common habitat.
Destruction of their habitat: There is no denying the fact that bats are very essential for our ecosystem as they maintain the ecological balance in the environment but the the rapid clearing of forests for agriculture, urbanization and for making space for the ever expanding human population have greatly damaged and transformed the natural ecological niche of bats to a great extent (Walsh et al., 2017). There has been an ever increasing growth of our communities, localities, states and country population, year by year our numbers are increasing which ultimately leads to deforestation and land use for infrastructure, housing roads and agriculture. The countries lying in Southeast Asia (SEA) region are undergoing a population explosion and have lost nearly 30% of forest cover only in the previous 40 years. The growth in human population in SEA region is expected to grow to around 250 million coming the year 2030 in comparison to only 130 million from the years 2001 and 2011 in a research by (Afelt et al., 2018).
Bat population in India: One of the most ecologically diverse countries in the world, India is renowned for its majestic wildlife, and studies of its natural history abound, but the bats of India have hardly ever been studied and mentioned, and very little is known about them. Though studied very less but bats are an important part of our biodiversity. With at least 109 species (Mistry, Shahroukh 1995) India has an incredibly vast diversity of bat species. This includes one of the largest bat species in size in the world, the Indian flying fox (Pteropus giganteus ); one of the most colourful bats in the world, the orange and black colour painted bat (Kerivoula picta ); and one of the rarest species, Salim Alis fruit bat (Latidens salimalii).  The habits of India’s bats are as diverse as the habitats they live and thrive in. From higher altitudes of the Himalayas, to the dry deserts of the Northwest, to the moist tropical forests of the East and South, there are bats that feed on fruit, nectar, insects, frogs, and even other bats also. In India the majority of bats population are in North Eastern states of the country. The species richness is also confined to the north eastern region.