Uploaded April 2014 | Updated September 2026, 26 minutes ago
For thousands of Kathmandu residents, navigating rush hour traffic is a daily headache. For research scientist Priya Joshi, it's just another day at the office.
Joshi leads a team of Nepalese field scientists who have been tasked with sampling bat droppings from overcrowded Kathmandu's busiest intersection in the Lazimpat neighborhood. Joshi and her team recently identified the site after scouting the entire city for an ideal location.
"The fruit bats have been hanging out in the trees in Lazimpat for as long as I can remember," said Joshi, who has lived in Kathmandu her entire life. "There are other bat sites around the city, but the challenge is to find one where we can get good samples. On these streets you have people walking directly under the bats exposing them to the droppings."
Joshi's field team installs tarps directly under the trees to collect the bat droppings for a 6-hour period. The droppings will be processed and analyzed for a variety of diseases.
For thousands of Kathmandu residents, navigating rush hour traffic is a daily headache. For research scientist Priya Joshi, it's just another day at the office.
Joshi leads a team of Nepalese field scientists who have been tasked with sampling bat droppings from overcrowded Kathmandu's busiest intersection in the Lazimpat neighborhood. Joshi and her team recently identified the site after scouting the entire city for an ideal location.
"The fruit bats have been hanging out in the trees in Lazimpat for as long as I can remember," said Joshi, who has lived in Kathmandu her entire life. "There are other bat sites around the city, but the challenge is to find one where we can get good samples. On these streets you have people walking directly under the bats exposing them to the droppings."
Joshi's field team installs tarps directly under the trees to collect the bat droppings for a 6-hour period. The droppings will be processed and analyzed for a variety of diseases.
