Southern Pride The Nilgiri Tahr

The state animal of Tamil Nadu is hardly known across the country, the only species of ungulate left in Southern India. Read on to understand what that means

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He visualised a plan of capturing the Tahr from the ninth hairpin bend on the way to Valparai in the Annamalai Tiger Reserve and airlifting the required number by helicopter to repopulate the Western Ghats, now free from grazing and possibly poaching. He was the late conservationist AJT Johnsingh, and the excerpt is from Walking the Western Ghats, published in 2015.

The contributions of AJT in the field of the Nilgiri Tahr have been overlooked as compared to those of Davidar, whose work led to the observance of October 7 as Nilgiri Tahr Day, on the birth anniversary of the naturalist. His 1975 survey on the mountain goat was the precedent for studies on the endangered species, which stands today at 3122, in the wild, as per a report released by WWF India in 2015. However, in October this year, with the launch of Project Nilgiri Tahr, the efforts in this respective field, of this conservationist, have come to fruition, with the establishment of the Dr AJT Johnsingh Wildlife Conservation Award.