CHENNAI: The first ever synchronised census of Tamil Nadu's state animal, the Nilgiri tahr, will commence on April 29. It will be a mammoth three-day exercise, with more than 700 personnel set to walk the length and breadth of the undulating tahr habitat.
The forest department has roped in the World Wide Fund for Nature - India (WWF-India), which has been studying the Nilgiri tahr for several years, Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Advanced Institute of Wildlife Sciences (AIWC) for scientific assistance.
Project Nilgiri tahr director MG Ganesan told TNIE that the Kerala forest department has been requested to join. "While the Eravikulam National Park, which is contiguous with Grass Hills in Anamalai tiger reserve (ATR), has agreed to do the census alongside us, we are yet to get the confirmation from Silent Valley National Park," he said.
The official said after detailed discussion, double observer and bounded count methods will be used for the census to arrive at the most accurate estimate. "Necessary training has been given to the participating personnel in Coimbatore, ATR (Pollachi), Gudalur, Kanniyakumari and Udumalpet. Training in Mudumalai and Srivilliputhur will be completed by Monday," he said.
The Nilgiri tahr habitat is spread across 13 forest divisions, 100 beats and 140 blocks. The terrain in some of the areas is highly challenging. So, the volunteers who are being engaged are chosen based on physical fitness and past trekking experience, besides having wildlife conservation background.
An adult male Nilgiri tahr was successfully radio-collared a month ago in Mukurthi National Park and several valuable insights have already started to kick in.
Supriya Sahu, Additional Chief Secretary, Environment, Forests and Climate Change Department, told TNIE: "Within nine months of Project Nilgiri Tahr being launched by Chief Minister MK Stalin, we were able to make so much progress. In fact, the project team was able to identify and catalog nine major plant species and three grass varieties that the Nilgiri tahr predominantly feed on. This is very important for habitat assessment as we move ahead with our goal of reintroducing this endangered species in their original habitat, where they became locally extinct, for instance the Glenmorgan mountains in the Nilgiris."
Historically present in much of the Western Ghats, the tahr inhabits only a few scattered habitat patches within Tamil Nadu and Kerala and is restricted to a mere 5% area of the Western Ghats within a narrow stretch of 400 km between the Nilgiris hills in the north and Asambu hills in the south. As per the study done by WWF-India in association with the Tamil Nadu forest department, the ‘Mountain Monarch’ has become locally extinct from around 14% of its historic shola-grassland habitat within the past few decades.
To reverse this trend, the Tamil Nadu government is carrying out major conservation interventions and species recovery under Project Nilgiri Tahr.