New plan for Nilgiri tahr conservation

K. S. Sudhi
KOCHI,  
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.