Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M.K. Stalin, on Thursday launched the ‘The Project Nilgiri Tahr’. The launch was conducted by unveiling a plaque at the Tamil Nadu Secretariat.
‘The Nilgiri Tahr’, locally known as ‘Varai Aadu’, is an endangered species and known for their gravity-defying skills in climbing steep cliffs.
Tamil Nadu Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department in a statement on Thursday said that there are multiple references to ‘The Nilgiri Tahr’ even in the Sangam Tamil literature written more than 2,000 years ago, including Silappatikaram, Sivaka Chindamani and others.
The statement added that under the ‘Project Nilgiri Tahr’, the department will develop a better understanding of Nilgiri Tahr population, the distribution and ecology, and reintroduction of ‘The Nilgiri Tahr’ to their historic habitats.
The Environment, Forest and Climate Change Department will increase awareness among public on ‘The Nilgiri Tahr’ and also develop educational material for school children on the animal.
The Tamil Nadu government also announced October 7 as ‘The Nilgiri Tahr Day’ in honour of E.R.C Devidar, whose birth anniversary falls on the same day as he had pioneered the first study on ‘The Nilgiri Tahr’ in 1975.
The office of the ‘The Project Nilgiri Tahr’ is set up at Coimbatore and a full-time director is appointed. A senior scientist and four research associates are also appointed to undertake various activities that comes under the project for which the state government has already allocated Rs 25 crore.
An amount of Rs 25 crore has been sanctioned for the project to carry out activities like bi-annual synchronised survey across forest divisions. Individual Tahr animals are tranquilised and monitored on the disease of the Nilgiri Tahr.
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