Nilgiri tahr census kicks off

A month after a Nilgiri tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius) was radio collared in the western catchment area in Mukurthi in the Nilgiris, a synchronised survey of the Tamil Nadu state animal kicked off on Monday, under the Project Nilgiri tahr.

The three-day exercise, the first of its kind, is being carried out in collaboration with the Kerala forest dept, with emphasis on the Kerala border. This is because the Grass Hills National Park of Anamalai tiger reserve and the Mukurthi national park in the Nilgiris share their boundaries with the Eravikulam national park and Silent Valley national park in Kerala.

“A pilot survey was conducted at the Grass Hills National Park which revealed that the bounded count method and double observer method are well suited for population estimation. The bounded count method has been uniformly adopted in both states,” says Supriya Sahu, additional chief secretary, environment, climate change and forest department.

The forest department is in coordination with premier institutes such as Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and WWF-India for the survey under Project Nilgiri Tahr. For the first time, a third-party observer, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is participating in Tamil Nadu.
The project involves nine components including a biennial synchronised survey across divisions; disease and diagnosis of lump affected individuals; and ecotourism.

The forest department has deputed more than 700 field staff and range officers besides researchers to carry out this census. The entire process is being monitored directly by the Project Nilgiri Tahr team in 13 forest divisions across the western ghats.
“The pellet samples collected during the census will be sent to AIWC for molecular studies and creation of DNA repository. The results of the synchronised survey and the approximate numbers of Nilgiri tahr in western ghats in Tamil Nadu will provide the baseline data for conservation planning and management of the tahr population,” says Sahu.

The Nilgiri tahr is a keystone species endemic to the western ghats and their numbers are crucial to a balance in the entire ecosystem.
The tahrs have gone extinct in Glenmorgan in the Nilgiris and several ‘mottais’ (peaks) in the Kalakad Mundanthurai Tiger Reserve (KMTR) such as Nandoothu, Panchanthangi and Thiruvannamalai, says D Venkatesh, field director MTR and Mukurthi National Park. “Due to frequent fires, the original grass and plants were destroyed and simbabogan grass (lemon grass) has taken over.”
A special research team has identified and documented at least nine varieties of grass and plants that are predominantly food for the tahr. “We hope we will be able to take a concrete step for the reintroduction of the animals in the traditional areas where they have gone extinct, in another six-seven months,” says Sahu.
WWF has reported that the existing tahr population is under severe stress due to habitat loss and hunting.
The population of the Nilgiri tahr has been estimated at 3,122 in the wild in a report released by WWF India in 2015.