The aura beamed with the natural green, the sound of the birds and bats in the air revealed the kind of environment in which we were, ought to belong to a person who perfectly understood what it means to be where you should ever be.
The man in front of me , Prof Martin Robert Kityo cast hysteric smile and stuck his index finger on his left thigh with shear confidence which is perfectly indicative of the fact that he knew the in-and-out of the bat that once upon a time stayed at the now Bat-valley theatre- a place that is now a play ground of a school, Bat Valley Primary School.
Between the mid 1960s and the early 1970s, Prof Feston Nkere, a researcher from the neighbouring country Kenya indicated that in his findings, the place was home to more than 250, 000 bats as Prof Kityo reminisces.
Bat valley a place located just in the middle of Kampala only exists with its name as bat valley but bats are no longer in existence in these places include, Wandegeya, Wampewo, Namugongo, Namirembe, Nakulabye, Lubiri, lower Kololo, Kubiri, Kololo green, Kitante, Kibuli, Katwe, Kabalagala, Bukesa, Bakuli, Wankoko, Rubaga, Nsambya, and Ndeeba. But when was the last time you saw a bat in these places?
“When the birds feel they don’t have food and where to stay they shift to a safer place. After that phenomenal head count by that Kenyan professor, those bats are believed to have shifted to this institution(Makerere University) but when the trees were cut, we believe they shifted to Ssese island or to Jinja district which is very possible,” Prof Kityo says.
Researchers say that bats can move up to a maximum of about 100km per night looking for shelter or food and if they don’t get it, they stay in a place for rest and that has made it hard for the bats that once were in Kampala remain. They believe that there are only about 20, 000n of them left.
A report by Baranga and Kiregyera indicates that a colony of 70,388 bats were in the bat valley. That means about 310 per tree, the average number of clusters per branch was four and the average cluster size about eight. The family that was in the bat valley was pteropodidae and eidolon helvum species.
Similar statistics indicated that bats are the second most populous mammals after rodents. This means that there could be up to one billion bats worldwide carrying out a census is difficult due to their nocturnal nature and hibernation during various seasons like winter.
Seasonal migration and their torpor nature during metabolism, especially when there is insufficient food makes them hard to count. But despite all these population bats in the city are so scarce and they have become very hard to find and even just have a glance at them. Most bats are about the size of a mouse and use their small teeth and weak jaws to grind up insects.
Kasyate Simon the spokesperson for KCCA says “Kampala is the capital city of this country and it opens up for human habitats most of what is present in Kampala was nonexistent it had areas of intense fauna and flora, but with more increase in human existence, human population and pressures, and the conflicts between human and animals saw the dispensation of some of the animals away from the city.”
He adds that “Let’s recall that this place is called Kampala with the history that it was regarded as “akasozi Kampala” an impala is a local antelope that was predominantly domiciled in this part of the country. If you can find me even a fossil of an impala today in Kampala I would put a bounty of several millions of shillings. There has been a change in development and human pressures that unfortunately brought about the extinction of some of these wild life bats and other animals.”
Mr. Kabanda David a food rights activist the Executive Director for Center for foods and Adquates Rights (CEPHROT) says “Agricultural plants, such as bananas, mangoes, cashews, dates, avocadoes, peaches, cloves, and figs (to name a few) rely on bats for pollination. Bats also help distribute the seeds of these important plants, so they can reproduce and create more fruit for us humans to eat and enjoy.”
He adds that “Without pollinating and seed-dispersing bats, many ecosystems would gradually die. Plants would fail to provide food and cover for wildlife species near the base of the food chain. If these plants die, wildlife will die, causing entire ecosystems to deteriorate. In the East African savannah, the great baobab tree is critical to the survival of so many species it is often called the “African Tree of Life.” The baobab depends almost exclusively on bats for pollination. Without bats, baobabs would die, causing a collapse of one of our planet’s most amazing and important ecosystems.”
Brenda Chalikunda says “bringing back the bats in the city calls for a lot of action. If we cut down trees there is deforestation being done. So we call upon people to do re afforestation in this case. Where we have free spaces in the city, let them not be blank. We can have trees, flowers, and other vegetation there which are good places for bats to thrive in and these would call them to be around.
Mr. Kasyate says Kololo hill for example was a bare grass hill from as far as the early 50s .It was just a bare hill. Every tree in Kololo has been planted deliberately by the authorities and the residents living in kololo. There has been a change in the habitats of the creatures in the city.
As KCCA we encourage the residents to see that at least in their compounds they have a tree or two. There has unfortunately been a change in the habitats of creatures in the city largely because of the increased human population and conflicts that are always there between the humans and animals but we know there are mitigating factors.
KCCA for example we are deliberate in our greening that’s why in our directory of physical planning we ensure that even as we approve development in different parts of the city we ensure that there is a consideration for greening, landscaping, and the conservation of some of this stuff that is currently in kampala the green city that is supposed to be. We cannot live in a complete concrete jungle and we try out and conserve some place and it’s a battle every single day.
WATCH STORY ON YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q2iMptA9LA&list=PL54iji-VaAbCjbXwKqa_cEmEqw7uZOln-
