Himalayan Tahr

[Mrudul Godbole]

Photographed this in Tunganath (Uttarakhand) at the altitude of about 12000ft. They were on the opposite peak and it was amazing to see them moving with ease on the peak. It was rainy and cloudy, so tried to create an environmental composition.

Canon 1D Mark IV, Canon 100-400mm, f11, 1/250, ISO 400, hand held, full frame.

Comments and critiques welcome..

[Shyamala Kumar]

Rare portrayal of a herd of this species in their natural habitat.I like the composition, the way the animals are speckled across the mountain side each one visible.TFS

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Wonderful environmental image. Nice to see such a large herd. It appears to me to be Himalayan Goral (Naemorhedus goral), a goat-antelope. It prefers grassy slopes which has been so nicely included in the frame.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Murugan Anantharaman]

Nice image with the habitat very clearly documented. Uttarakhand only spells sadness and dismay as of today. Nice to see an image from Uttarakhand which is refreshing. Thanks for sharing.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Nice Pic Mrudul...quite a few of them. don't get to see pics of a large group of either the Goral or the Thar. Habitat has come out well

Shakti da this looks like the Himalayan Thar from the pics of the Goral that I have seen. Im not very sure of either as I have never seen the ghoral and the one sighting of the Himalayan Thar was at a distance and quite some time ago.

TFS
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Initially when we sighted this herd, there was lot of mist and they vanished. After about half an hour or 40 mins they again came back. The locals call them thar-than.

This was above 12000 feet. You can see some of this footage in the "Save the Himalaya" short that I have created. Kept it short - just two and half minutes - so that people with slow connections can see it fully. http://youtu.be/aDIGMh_rA54

It rained and the first landslides started. So rushed back to rudraprayag and then to delhi. After couple of days all the roads and everything got washed away. I hope we can raise awareness.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Debasis Bose]

Lovely image of Ghoral or goat antelopes. I first saw them during my visit to "Rudraprayag in 1993" to walh back on time to the time of Corbett and famous "Man Eating Leopard of Rudraprayag". From the documentary of Sabyasachi and Mrudul I see a sea change in surrounding of rudraprayag, from few house spread across the hill now it has become a concrete jungle. I still remember my few hours I had spent imagining the night vigil of corbett on the left bank of rudraprayag bridge, walking on chatwapipal bridge and off course Golabrai shelter, punditji's house and the mango tree underwhich the leopard was killed. 20 years back population was quite less, after sunset rarely we could see any people other than few smoking or having paan in the paan shop next to the rudraprayag bridge. It is sad to hear and see the documentary reflecting sea of concrete building. I still remember pugmarks of leopard I have seen near chatwapipal bridge further up koteswar cave. 10,000 years of history and from time it has been recorded it confirms that we Indian will never learn and are determined to finish off the very cause for petty and selfish gains.

[Suraj Sreedhar]

Nice habitat shot,nice to see them in large number like this..........................:thumbup:
TFS

[V S Sankar]

Fantastic Tahr or Goral scape with refreshing surroundings.Not very different from the Southern parts.Looks very similar to the Nilgir Tahrs of Western Ghats.Good shot....

[Kaustuv Chatterjee]

Wonderful environment shot and the composition enhances the feel.

[Bibhav Behera]

Sure is a lovely sighting. I like the environment portrayed. Would love to see them sometime soon. Unlike their cousins down south, they are, I believe not as used to Humans which is a good thing.

Thanks for sharing.