Nilgiri Tahr

• Tamil Nadu will collaborate with Kerala to jointly count the population of Nilgiri Tahr.
• Tamil Nadu had launched Project Nilgiri Tahr last year for the conservation of the State animal.

ABOUT NILGIRI TAHR

• It is southern India’s only mountain ungulate.
• The animal is only found in select habitats in the two states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
• It prefers montane grasslands, with steep and rocky terrains at an altitude between 300 and 2,600 metres above sea level.
• There are believed to be a little over 3,100 of the animals living in highly fragmented habitats in the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu and Kerala, ranging between the Nilgiris in the north and the Kanniyakumari hills in the south.
• Eravikulam National Park in Kerala is the biggest habitat of the animal followed by Anamalai Tiger Reserve.
• Threats – habitat threats in the form of the spread of invasive plants such as wattles, pines, and eucalyptus; Hunting; lumpy skin disease has also been observed in the animal etc.
• Protection status
  • IUCN red list status– Endangered
  • WPA 1972– Schedule 1