JAMSHEDPUR: The Steel City 's popular bat park, located inside Jubilee Park , has come under surveillance of the district health department in the wake of Nipah virus outbreak in Kerala. The rare virus spread by fruit bats, which can cause flu-like symptoms and brain damage, has killed 10 people in Kerala; at least nine more are being treated.More than 2,500 people visit the park to watch fruit bats hanging from the trees at the island of the Jayanti Sarovar everyday. Spread across one acre, the bat park is a seven decades old destination. Apart from Jubilee Park, the green lungs at the Birla temple premises at Cable Town area in Golmuri also houses bats and is under the radar of the health department.In a precautionary advisory, officials have asked people not to drink water from the Jayanti Sarovar lake alongside the bat park and not to pluck fruits that are partially damaged or have been partly eaten. It has also advised people not to touch the waste strewn around the bat park.District surveillance officer Sahir Pal said: "Though there's no suspected case of Nipah in the Steel City yet, the department took the initiative to alert the stakeholders as the park has a large number of bats and attract scores of visitors." He added that the bat's normal flight range is 3km and denizens within this distance of the park should take precautionary measures such as maintaining cleanliness and hygiene at home to avert any potential health complications relating to the virus. The advisory also asked visitors not to come close to trees densely populated with fruit bats and take adequate safety measures while enjoying a boat ride in the lake. In case a visitor touches a tree that has some bats, they should immediately clean their hands with clean running water and soap.There is no vaccination or specific treatment for the virus, which induces flu-like symptoms leading to an agonising encephalitis and coma. The World Health Organization (WHO) has named Nipah as one of the eight priority diseases that could cause a global epidemic, alongside Ebola and Zika.

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