Carmel ‘cavewomen’ to unravel cave secrets

Panaji: The antiquity and cultural aspects of caves have fascinated historians and archaeologists in Goa, but the diverse ecosystem they support has been largely ignored, may be due to their eerie and hostile ambience.
Speleology, as a science related to study of caves in the context of their biology and environment, has been unheard of in the state. The work of three college students in a Divar cave is likely to carry some odd explorations in the past from an amateur to a research-inspiring level with their interesting findings.
Stepping bravely into the dark and dank world of bats and unknown beasts, the young students of Carmel college for women, Nuvem, compiled an inventory of 13 cave-dwelling species of fauna.
These included three species of spiders, two each of ants and frogs and one each of a centipede, wood lice, cricket, snake, lizard and a bat.
The study using advance scanning electron microscopy also significantly reported three species of bat ectoparasites, which are involved in transmission of human diseases.
“An alarming aspect of this investigation is that these blood-feeding ectoparasites bite humans and are also implicated in transfer of viruses, including those which cause Kyasanur forest disease (KFD),” Pratiksha P Sail, research team leader, said.
The study with Archana Pal and Ismat Shaikh was carried out for a year under the guidance of Manoj Borkar, associate professor of zoology and the college’s biodiversity research cell chairman.
In possibly the first study of its kind in Goa, the team also found, after analysis, the cave soil to be fertile. It is enriched with guano of Rufous horsehoe bat (Rhinolophus rouxii), the keystone species of the cave ecosystem. “The bat excreta has more phosphate and organic carbon,” Pal said.
The finding offers scope for research in medicine and industry. “This is an uncharted area wherein researchers can find and culture fungal organisms from the cave the soil that could yield important substances for medical and industrial applications,” Borkar said.
The winter sleep habits of horseshoe bat was another interesting find. “In Western ghats, it hibernates during winter due to cold climate, but the Divar bat was active throughout the year, as the weather here is not extreme,” Shaikh said.
The cave ecosystem with its own unique biodiversity is extremely vulnerable to human and natural impact. “Compaction of the cave due to sediment is a major factor, which can reduce its dimension and productivity, leading to extinction of small species,” Borkar said.
The entry of moulds in the cave can increase the pressures of competition for the cave dwellers. “Similarly, the increase in carbon dioxide level and ambient temperature can alter cave micro climate, making it inhospitable for its occupants,” he added.
Many a times, bats just abandon the caves due to disturbances, leading to an acute nutritional stress inside. “The sanctity of cave environments has to be preserved to ensure nutrient cycling within the cave that translates into healthy and rich diversity of cave dwellers,” Borkar.