Rahul Prabhu Khanolkar

Rahul Prabhu Khanolkar

Rahul Prabhu Khanolkar has been studying bats since 2003 and is involved in extensive surveys on bat diversity in the region of Northern Western Ghats along Karnataka & Goa state. In 2008, he was selected as a SEABCRU (South East Asian Bat Conservation Research Unit) fellow, a collaboration with Earth watch institute, UK and got to work under Dr. Tigga Kingston and her research team in Malaysia for 2 months along with 4 other members from South East Asian countries to study Bat ecology in the Malaysian Rain forest ecosystem.

Rahul’s project will provide a full inventory of the bat diversity at Mhadei and try to establish India’s first Bat Sanctuary, which is under constant threat from deforestation, dams, mining, forest fires and human disturbance. This will provide platform for public awareness programme in a country where protection to bats and conservation is given very low priority. Outreach will increase local awareness of the importance of bats and build local capacity to conduct bat conservation research and management.