The bats found dead in large number in a village near here had succumbed to heat stroke, their examination by Indian Veterinary Research Institute has revealed, an official said on Friday.
Amid the widespread of coronavirus, said to be orginating from bats, a large number of the nocturnal winged mammal was found dead on Tuesday in Belghat village near Gola of Gorakhpur, triggering panic among people.
Following their examination by IVRI at Bareilly, the bats were found to have died due to heat stroke, said Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Avinash Kumar on Friday.
After getting the information, police and forest department teams reached the spots and took bat samples for postmortem.
DFO Kumar said he has not received the IVRI's examination report so far but he talked to doctors of the institute about the causes of bats' death.
"Doctor at IVRI told me that both corona and rabbies test reports of bat samples are negative and they are considering heat stroke as the reason behind the death of bats. Many bats had fallen from trees due to heat and received head injury which is also a cause of death," said Kumar.
The doctors, however, are holding heat stroke as the major reason behind bats' death, he added.
The day temperature in Gorakhpur had risen to 42.4 degree Celsius on Monday and water bodies like ponds and small lake in the area have also dried up.
"Actually their skin was burnt due to the heat stroke and they became unconscious and fell from the tree and died," the DFO said.
On reports that the bats had died of heat stroke, a Belghat resident, Pankaj Shahi, said, "It is a relief that the bats were not suffering from coronavirus. Most of the villagers were scared that there would be an outbreak of COVID-19 soon in the village."
Bats were also found on and under the mango trees of Pankaj Shahi's orchard.
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