Tamil Nadu commemorated the inaugural 'Nilgiri Tahr Day', on October 7 (Saturday), nearly a year after initiating Project Nilgiri Tahr for the protection of its State animal. The government designated October 7 as Nilgiri Tahr Day in recognition of E.R.C. Davidar, a wildlife conservationist who pioneered studies on Southern India's lone mountain ungulate as early as the 1960s.
The government stated that Davidar's birthday would be honoured as Nilgiri Tahr Day when it launched Project Nilgiri Tahr. Davidar conducted the first Nilgiri tahr census in the Nilgiris area in 1963 and estimated that there were around 400 tahrs in the Nilgiris, with the biggest herd consisting of 38 animals. In 1975, he undertook a systematic study of Nilgiri tahr throughout the Western Ghats, estimating around 2,200 individuals. Among his tahr conservation works are "Whispers from the Wild," "The Cheetal Walk-Living in the Wilderness," and "The Toda and The Tahr."
Members of Project Nilgiri Tahr stated that numerous events will be held in the following days to raise awareness about the state animal, the conservation status of which is listed as 'endangered' on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species. The five-year tahr project, on a budget of 25.14 crore, is led by a Project Director and a research team that includes one senior scientist-cum-research coordinator and four senior research fellows. The project's goals include conducting synchronised surveys across tahr holding divisions, removing invasive species, and restoring grassland in tahr habitats, raising awareness about Tahr conservation, implementing ecotourism and ecodevelopment initiatives, and monitoring the species' health.
