TUGHLAQABAD UNDERGROUNDS

Herbert Daniel Gebauer - 25/06/2016

»Subterranean apartments [tahkhana] still attract the curiosity of travellers« (HAMILTON 1828, 2: 681). SITUATION: At an unspecified location somewhere at Fort Toglokabad »at the extremity of one of the Mewât hills, not far from the city of Delhi« HERVEY, Mrs (1853, 1: 441 note) Tooklabad HERVEY, Mrs (1853, 1: 441 note) Tughlakabad N28°30': E077°16' (nima.mil/geonames accessed 16.11.2003); India Road Atlas, Eicher Goodearth (2006: 1 C3 C4) Tughlaqabad N28°30': E077°16' (nima.mil/geonames accessed 16.11.2003); LONELY PLANET, India (2009: 161) Tughlickabad »about 19 miles south from Delhi« (HAMILTON 1828, 2: 681) Tuglakabad BROSSET (1962b: 55 table) CAVE LIFE - bats (Chiroptera): BROSSET (1962b: 28 table) caught in the »underground portions of the fort« of »Tuglakabad« one individual of Rhinopoma hardwickei Gray 1831 in one April (1959 or 1960?) BROSSET (1962b: 55 table): Taphozous kachhensis Dobson 1872: In April several colonies (30 or 40 individuals) at Tuglakabad in »in tombs and undergrounds.« SRINIVASULU & SRINIVASULU (2007: Bats of Delhi - An update.- page 30) sighted Rhinopoma hardwickei Gray 1831 (lesser mouse-tailed bat ) in Qutab Minar complex and adjacent ruins. They list no Taphozous kachhensis but saw Taphozous melanopogon Temminck 1841 (black-beared tomb bat) in Qutab Minar complex and adjacent ruins while they did not encounter Taphozous nudiventris Cretzschmar 1830-31 (naked-rumped tomb bat).