What is it?

• The Khangkhui, locally called Khangkhui Mangsor, is a natural limestone cave in Manipur.
• Excavations carried out by Manipur’s archaeologists had revealed the cave was home to Stone Age communities.
• The cave has been steeped in the folklore of the dominant Tangkhul community, whose ancestors believed it was the abode of a protective deity.
• The cave was also used as a shelter by the local people during World War 2 after the Japanese forces advanced to Manipur and the adjoining Nagaland.

Why in News:

• Bats were killed and evicted from the Khangkhui cave after 2016-17 purportedly to make it “more tourist-friendly”.

About the fauna involved

• The cave housed large roosting populations of bats belonging to the Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae families.
• Researchers recorded Blyth’s horseshoe bat in the Khangkhui cave
• This bat was one of 12 new species added to Manipur’s mammalian fauna. The others included the ashy roundleaf bat, the intermediate horseshoe bat, the northern woolly horseshoe bat, the greater false vampire bat, the hairy-faced bat, Hodgson’s bat, Hutton’s tube-nosed bat and the round-eared tube-nosed bat

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/bats-evicted-from-prehistoric-manipur-cave-for-tourism-study/article66057384.ece