The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Munnar to host 4th World Congress on Mountain Ungulates

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 19, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Munnar to host 4th World Congress on Mountain Ungulates

Special Correspondent

Thiruvananthapuram: Munnar will play host to the 4th World Congress on Mountain Ungulates from September 12 to 15.

The conference, sponsored by the Caprinae Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission of the IUCN World Conservation Union (formerly IUCN — The International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) and the High Range Wildlife and Environment Preservation Association, is being held for the first time in Asia. Munnar provides an ideal setting for the conference: it is one of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots in the world and home to the Nilgiri tahr, the endangered mountain goat.

Addressing a press conference here recently, T. Damu, chairman, organising committee of the conference; M.K. Prasad, member; Mohan Verghese, chairman of the High Range Wildlife and Environment Preservation Association, a pioneer group in nature conservation; and Mohan Alambat, well known conservationist; said the conference would provide a golden opportunity to wildlife biologists and managers of the Indian subcontinent to interact with international experts on the conservation of mountain ungulates. The conference will throw more light on the endangered Nilgiri tahr and other mountain ungulates in the Indian subcontinent.

India is home to 18 species of mountain ungulates, most of which are highly endangered and have international conservation significance.

The High Range Wildlife and Environment Preservation Association has been closely involved in the conservation of Nilgiri tahrs and the biorich ecosystem in around Munnar which has a conservation history stretching over eight decades, they said.

The conservation of mountain ungulates is dependent primarily on safeguarding and nurturing the mountain ecosystem, including protection of species and their habitats with local participation, not to mention Government support and international cooperation.

The congress will focus on all aspects of the mountain ungulate in terms of ecology, biology, management and conservation. The progress made in the last few years in the conservation of the species will also be discussed.

They said oral and poster presentations would be organised in four sessions.

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