Tushar Kanti Nath

It was late October. The green vale and ridges of Eravikulum National Park were overflowing with soft golden sunshine. A gentle cool breeze was blowing.

I was moving ahead on the ascending metal road enjoying the beautiful greenery of the national park. Both sides of the road like other parts of the Western Ghats were full of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants specially grasslands and sometimes with slanting natural stone-like mosaic painting in green canvas.

Suddenly a goat-like animal appeared on a rocky slab area in the nearby bush. The timid creature was followed by a herd and just then a visitor exclaimed with joy and shouted Tahr…Tahr. It was the Nilgiri Tahr.

Nilgiri Tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius), the state animal of Tamil Nadu, is an endangered and endemic species of the Western Ghats. The nearest relative of this grazing animal is the sheep though it looks like a mountain goat. Nilgiri Tahr prefers to live in the mountain slopes with grass-woodland.

It is only found in the southern part of the Western Ghats in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The animal typically inhibits the fringes of the grassy plateaus and the adjacent cliffs and steep rock slabs at higher elevations — over 1200-2600 meters. The grassland-shola habitat is a poly-climax for Tahr. The southern wet temperate forest usually not exceeding 10 meters in height is called sholas. The main grassland utilised by Tahr is dominated by Eulalia phaeothrix and Andropogon polyptychus…read more on NOPR