Once labelled as “vacant” and earmarked for redistribution, the high-altitude grasslands of Eravikulam in Kerala’s Western Ghats narrowly avoided being lost to plantations and administrative oversight. Today, the landscape forms Eravikulam National Park, home to the world’s largest population of the endangered Nilgiri tahr and the famed Neelakurinji bloom.
Located near Munnar in Idukki district, the park’s shola–grassland ecosystem was long misunderstood by colonial administrators and later by post-Independence revenue officials, who saw grasslands as unproductive land rather than a distinct ecological system.
Colonial Classifications and Land Reforms Put Grasslands at Risk
During British rule, estate records described Eravikulam’s upper slopes as “estate waste” or “spare grass,” reinforcing the idea that land without timber or crops had little value. That language persisted in revenue documents even after Independence.
When Kerala implemented its land reform programme in the early 1970s, areas outside tea plantation boundaries were automatically classified as surplus land. Despite being critical habitat for Nilgiri tahr and other endemic species, Eravikulam’s grasslands were marked for redistribution among the landless.
Officials questioned the need to protect a landscape where, in their view, “nothing grew.” Grasslands were seen as empty spaces between forests and plantations, not as ecosystems in their own right.
Local Knowledge, Quiet Advocacy and Science Shifted Policy
Resistance to the proposed redistribution did not take the form of public protest. Instead, it emerged through quiet persuasion by conservationists, scientists, and members of the local Muthuvan tribal community, who had long protected the slopes through traditional knowledge.
Researchers highlighted the ecological importance of the grasslands, while forest watchers from the Muthuvan community explained animal movement patterns, breeding areas, and seasonal grazing routes of the Nilgiri tahr. Former estate manager JC Goldsbury and senior officials such as MK Ranjitsinh also played key roles in advocating protection at the highest levels of government.
A series of administrative decisions between 1974 and 1976 culminated in the notification of Eravikulam as a protected area, making it one of India’s earliest national parks dedicated primarily to grassland conservation.
Conservation Success Facing New Pressures
Fifty years later, Eravikulam supports 841 Nilgiri tahr the highest concentration globally out of a total population of 2,668 across Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The park also safeguards rare orchids, seasonal streams, and the Neelakurinji plant, which flowers once every 12 years.
However, conservationists warn that new threats are emerging. Expanding tourism, road construction, and nearby plantations have fragmented habitats, while stray dogs pose disease risks to tahr populations. Climate change has begun affecting Neelakurinji flowering cycles through erratic rainfall and rising temperatures.
Experts say the next phase of conservation will depend not on landmark legal battles, but on sustained attention, habitat connectivity, and careful management echoing the quiet, patient approach that saved Eravikulam in the first place.