Tamil Nadu   

Nilgiri Tahr population healthy: census

Special Correspondent

UDHAGAMANDALAM: The population of the Nilgiri Tahr at the Mukurthi National Park is healthy, according to a three-day census that concluded on Sunday.

Range Officer H. Devaraj said the census revealed that the Nilgiri Tahr (Hemitragus hylocrius), a highly endangered goat species restricted to the grasslands and active during the day, was reproducing at a healthy rate. Sixty young ones were sighted during the census, which the Forest Department conducted with the assistance of the Nilgiris Wildlife and Environment Association and the World Wide Fund for Nature. One hundred and sixty staff members and volunteers took part in the exercise, which covered the Mukurthi peak, where the maximum number of the animals was found, the western catchments, Bangithappal and the Nilgiri peak in the park, which sprawls over 80 square km, and which was created in April 1982 to protect the animals, which live among precipices.

Though the final figure is yet to be arrived at, the population is estimated at about 200.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Making access to education easier
Away from the IT bandwagon
Father of insurance field officers' fraternity
Integrating technology and pedagogy
NLUs, a preferred recruitment destination
FTII entrance examination
Students discuss new methods of copper production at technical symposium
Parties condemn attack on fishermen
Nilgiri Tahr population healthy: census
Foreign investment in retail trade flayed
An attempt to distribute gains "more evenly"
Making education accessible in India
Chennai Business School to offer new courses
New courses in NITK
13 new coral species found
Minister promises sufficient funds for textile modernisation
Briefly

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu