TheHindu, September 27, 2014
A landscape-based conservation programme to extend the
conservation of Nilgiri tahr outside the Eravikulam National Park is
being formulated in the State for the long-term survival of the species.
Traditionally, tahr conservation has been centred around the Eravikulam park.
Five-year plan
The
Forest Department has sought suggestions from wildlife conservationists
for drawing up a five-year plan for the species. Under the conservation
programme, which would be implemented with the support of research
organisations and indigenous communities, the wildlife managers propose
to “identify, assess, and map suitable Nilgiri tahr habitats, both in
protected areas and non-protected areas, which require attention.”
A
document drafted by the department points out that the annual
population estimation conducted in the Eravikulam National Park is
“nothing but an indication of total number of tahr and calves in the
population.”
The “bounded count method” employed in
the park cannot be applied for “isolated meta population (spatially
separated populations of the same species), as the method requires
knowledge of the home range of known herds,” it says.
Though
tahr has “historically a much wider distribution in the southern
Western Ghats, including a larger part of Tamil Nadu and southwestern
Karnataka, the present geographical range does not exceed 400 km
north-south from the Nilgiri Hills to the Kanyakumari Hills,” according
to the document.
The document also stated that there
are many unexplored tahr habitats in the State and many of the calving
areas of species are located outside the protected areas even in
Eravikulam.
