My first memory of a bat is of fear.

My grandfather’s aunt lived in an old haveli in Chandni Chowk. Her home was on the first floor, reached by a narrow staircase that always seemed wrapped in darkness. Bats lived there. As a child, I would sprint up those stairs, convinced they would get tangled in my hair and suck my blood. I have no idea where I picked up this dramatic misinformation, but like many childhood fears, it felt real.

“Don’t be scared,” my grandfather would say calmly. “If a bat flies into the house, turn off the lights, leave the outside light on, and keep the door open. It will find its way out.”

Bats, perhaps more than any other animal, suffer from a terrible public image. They are associated with darkness, horror stories, and superstition though they are among the most important animals in our ecosystem.

Bats are the only mammals capable of true flight. Found almost everywhere in the world except deserts and polar regions, they quietly perform ecological services humans depend on. Insect-eating bats consume millions of bugs every night, acting as natural pest controllers for farms and forests. Many plants and fruit-bearing trees rely on bats for pollination and seed dispersal.

There are more than 1,300 species of bats, making them the second largest group of mammals after rodents. Some are tiny enough to fit into a child’s palm; others have wingspans stretching nearly six feet.

The scientific name of bats sounds poetic. The order Chiroptera comes from the Greek and means “hand wing.” A bat’s wing is essentially a modified hand: four elongated fingers connected by a thin, flexible membrane of skin. This allows them to twist, dive, and change direction mid-air with astonishing agility. Bats spend most of their daylight hours hidden away in roosts, caves, tree hollows, cracks in old buildings, or forgotten corners of ancient homes. They hang upside down while resting, clinging effortlessly with their hind feet.

There’s an old Hindi idiom:
“Chamgadad ke aaye pahune, usne unhe bhi ulta latka diya.”
(When guests visited a bat, he asked them to hang upside down too.)

Like many idioms, it turns an animal into a caricature. Yet the real creature is far more fascinating.

Microbats navigate darkness using echolocation, emitting high-pitched sounds that bounce back after striking objects. The returning echoes tell them the size, distance, and direction of obstacles or prey. It is nature’s own sonar system, precise enough to catch a mosquito mid-flight.

Bats groom themselves meticulously, sometimes even grooming each other. Most bats give birth to just one pup at a time and nurse them with milk, like other mammals.

Today, when I think of that staircase in the old haveli, I remember the flutter of wings in dim light, and my grandfather’s voice telling me there was nothing to fear.

Photos and text by Prerna Jain.