FIRST ESTIMATION OF INDIAN GAUR

FIRST ESTIMATION OF INDIAN GAUR

 

The first population estimation exercise of the Indian gaur carried out in the Nilgiris Forest Division in recent years, which was conducted in February of this year

 

It revealed more than an estimated 2,000 Indian gaurs inhabit the entire division

Majority of the gaurs seen around Kundah, Kotagiri, Coonoor and Kattabettu, preferred to inhabit tea estates and human settlements

Gaur: One of the largest extant bovines

Gaur historically occurred throughout mainland South and Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Myanmar, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China and Nepal

Today, the range of the species is seriously fragmented, and it is regionally extinct in Sri Lanka

 

Gaur are largely confined to evergreen forests or semi-evergreen and moist deciduous forests, but also occur in deciduous forest areas at the periphery of their range

Listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986

The domesticated form of the gaur is called gayal (Bos frontalis) or mithun

Gaur subspecies: B. g. gaurus ranges (India, Nepal and Bhutan), B. g. readei (Upper Myanmar to Tanintharyi Region), B. g. hubbacki (Peninsular Malaysia) 

Gaurs are not as aggressive toward humans as wild water buffaloes