Nilgiri Langur

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Bedtime stories for kids in kerala has a poignant one of a monkey which tries hard to escape a hunter and fails. Finally spying him aim, it quickly joins its palms together in a prayer for mercy, the hunter a bit late in realizing the gesture pulls the trigger and repents his action for the rest of his life. The realty of this land is that for every one hunter who repents there will be a thousand who will pull that trigger many times more without even a hint of remorse. The current distribution and population of the Niligiri langur will corroborate this beyond doubt.

It is perhaps the most hunted amongst the monkey species of India and continues to be even today. I had come across hard evidence of this even in 2008 in more places than one across the lower ranges of the western ghats.

Karinkorongu Rasayanam a well known traditional medicinal syrup made form the body parts of this creature is one of the chief culprits. It is supposed to cure everything from Asthma to Arthritis and is very much in demand. Karinkorong translates to black monkey in Malayalam. Habitat destruction is of course another major threat.

500D, 55-250, 250mm, AE, f7.1, ISO 800, SS 1/60. Parambikulam TR. C&C welcome.

[Sucheth Lingachar]

Beautiful Creature Roopak.... and beautifully Captured.....

[Shyamala Kumar]

Beautiful capture of a rare creature and thanks for the information about the reason for its endangerment.I was unaware that Indians like Chinese had such ludicrous beliefs.

[Debasis Bose]

Nice way to convey facts Roopak. In our country wildlife crime has become a lucrative business and that provides high motivation to poachers. Lovely creation of nature, and nicely captured. Thanks for sharing.

[Mrudul Godbole]

Interesting pose and good eye contact. It feels as if it is asking us, why we kill other species for our benefit :(. When I had been to Parambikulam, a few years back, it was very difficult to photograph them, as they would run of at the slightest noise, and stay on the high branches, maybe due to poaching. A very touching story. Thanks for sharing.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Roopak,
This is a nice image. I have not succeeded in the few tries that I had made in getting such a clean shot. In Parambikulam, everytime I took out my long lens, immediately they used to get frightened and hid behind the bamboos or branches. I am told that people also make pickles out of the Nilgiri Langoor. When we talk about Tiger, everybody feel for it. However, not many hearts beat for saving these "monkeys". I think we need to make people aware of this.

Sabyasachi

[Hymakar Valluru]

Lovely Frame Roopak... I have seen a mother and a kid in the outskirts of munnar..the kid of this size came very close to our car.. Enjoyed clicking their images... we went there to sight Great Canary Flycatcher...after seeing the image posted by you i am reminded.. will post a few after processing..

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Lovely image. Nice composition. The eyes are full of pathos, as if asking for our help.
After going through the preamble, the pre-1959 era has come back when sustained hunting took place as the flesh was credited with rejuvenating and therapeutic powers by superstition. After that there were reports about improvement in restricted ranges of Tamil Nadu and Kerala ( Period of study: 1959-70 by M.Krishnan.)
But again the same old story of greed and destruction.
Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Thanks all for comments.

Patra sab : the pickle you are reffering to is the infamous Karinkorongu Rasayanam, I said "syrup" for want of a better word.


Shakti da : I feel their populations continue to improve in restricted ranges which being PAs are reasonably free of poaching ..that much atleast is due to our friends in the FD (under staffed, underequiped and underpaid as they are) the problem is in the fringe areas and in private holdings where there in no protection of any kind. In parambikulam they are seen in good numbers and increasing.


Rgds
Roopak

[Prasad Dingankar]

Very nice capture along with an informative story telling, which is the fact, .. Thanks for sharing.

[Suraj Sreedhar]

Nice that u got them in open,NICE Image......................
TFS

[V S Sankar]

Nice shot Roopakji and informative commentary.Karigorangu Rasayanam(Pickle according to Sabyaji!)was famous in Kerala.But Iam not aware whether it is still being sold anywhere.May be they have ran short of the langurs.Very difficult to capture them on camera.......