Sanctuary Asia — January 2018

Sanctuary | In The Field

MITHUN KUNDU/PUBLIC DOMAIN

Gaur calves gamboling at a

distance of hardly fi ve metres from us

with the rest of the herd looking on

unconcernedly. Believable? If somebody

had told me this I would have called him

a charlatan, but seeing is believing and

my team will attest to the fact that this

happened not once but twice at Kiliyur

Valley in Yercaud.

This and many interesting

experiences occurred between 2011

and 2012 as we undertook a vertebrate

survey in Yercaud, the fi rst to target all

classes of vertebrates. In the 1920s and

‘30s, the Vernay Scientifi c Expedition

by the Zoological Survey of India

concentrated only on avifauna. We

were told two earlier studies had been

conducted on the gaur and the short-

nosed fruit bat by university students,

but we could not get details though we

did sight a short-nosed fruit bat with a

metal ring around its foot.

Yercaud in the Shevroy or

Servarayan Hills of the Eastern Ghats

is a popular tourist destination in Tamil

Nadu and post-monsoon visitors fl ock

to the Kiliyur Falls that present a

breathtaking sight with a plunge of over

90 m. Off the beaten track (not a joy

ride!) the valley abounds in wildlife. The

climb down the irregular steps can take

an hour and the ascent twice as long,

but in our book the rewards more than

made up for the discomfort, especially

from a scientifi c perspective.

FISH FAUNA OF THE SHEVROY

We were a team of three with both

specifi c and multidisciplinary skills and

backed by fi eld assistants, local guides

and a staff photographer. Preston

The Shevroy Hills in the Eastern Ghats

EXPLORING WILD YERCAUD

Text and illustrations by M. Eric Ramanujam