Species File: Exploring India’s biodiversity, one species at a time.
A 2026 survey counted 1,364 Nilgiri tahr in Tamil Nadu, nearly 5% more than the last year. Southern India’s only mountain ungulate, the Nilgiri tahr (Nilgiritragus hylocrius), is Tamil Nadu’s state animal.
Endemic to the Nilgiris, it is locally known as varayaadu, or cliff goat. A stout animal with curved horns and strong hooves with rubber-like soles, it scales sheer vertical cliffs with ease — a skill that helps it evade predators and access nooks which larger herbivores cannot. Tahrs graze on grass and shrubs, spreading seeds and fertilising the soil with their excreta as they go.
The Nilgiri tahr lives in the high-altitude grasslands and rocky cliffs in the southern Western Ghats. Eravikulam National Park in Kerala holds the largest population. In Tamil Nadu, the two largest contiguous habitats are in Grass Hills National Park in the Anamalai Tiger Reserve and Mukurthi National Park in the Nilgiris.
It is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List and in India, it has the highest legal protection under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, offering it the strongest protection against hunting, poaching, and trading.
But its range has shrunk to a fraction of what it once was, largely due to agricultural plantations, hydroelectric and infrastructure projects, and invasive plants that have eaten into its grassland habitat. Studies show that a warming climate could render much of the Nilgiri tahr’s remaining habitat unsuitable in the coming years. Isolated populations face the added risks of inbreeding and disease transmission from stray dogs.
In a story published by Mongabay-India in 2024, M.G. Ganesan, director of Project Nilgiri Tahr, said: “The Nilgiri tahr lives 300 to 2,800 metres above mean sea level. Due to anthropogenic reasons and climate change, its elevation has been increasing, making manual surveillance and population counting methods impossible.”
Read more about the Nilgiri tahr in our stories on how Eravikulam became a refuge for the tahr, climate change threats to its habitat, and how drones are helping monitor the species.
Banner image: A Nilgiri tahr. Image by Kalyan Varma via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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