375
Adjoining the temple is a large circular area, the pen, surrounded by stones,
where the buffaloes rest and sleep during the one lunar month of the year, in the
dry season, when the temple is in operation. Its dairyman priest—
“pohkarrdhpawll(zh)”—a Kerrir clan member absolutely free of any pollution, as
stipulated in the deeply entrenched ethical contract of dairying strictures that guide
the entire world of the Toda,
47
is there to ensure its inviolable sanctity and protect
the buffalo (or, as the case may be, find succor and protection in their company).
We reached the temple along a specific path, leech-ridden as one drew close, and
paid our many respects. This primeval setting emanated its inexpressibly stable ecosystem, an interdependent alliance of biodiversity, non-violence, and sheer love
engaging one and all. We had little doubt that the pugmarks of the various large cats,
were, at most, five minutes separated from our own passage into this thicket of primordial spirituality. And that when we headed back up the muddy allée toward the
distant hamlet in darkness, cold-drenching mists, common in winter throughout the
Nilgiris, swirling around us, that all those animals were watching. Permitting us to
pass. They read our hearts.
Emerging from the thickness of wind, rain, and encroaching darkness, several
Toda buffaloes wandered past us, at their ease, undisturbed, a mother keeping a calf
from losing the path.
41.9 Their Future
We thought back to various theories of island biogeography, and the notion that is
quite key to conservation currents, namely, the reality of habitat fragments throughout the world, of populations confined to and dependent upon small ranges.
48
In the
case of both the Toda buffaloes and the Todas themselves, there is little latitude for
expanding contiguity between biological fragments in the Nilgiris. However, while
Tamil Nadu population figures for the state continue to increase, as in all of India,
total population numbers within the Nilgiris have been steadily declining, from a
high in 2001 of 762,141, to 735,394 in 2011 (essentially the population of Bhutan),
and continuing on that trajectory of diminution.
49
That is good news for biodiversity
temple style of South Indian vimana, a prototypic 7-story towering structure that has also been
replicated in Northern Indian temple shikara, as well as Tibetan Buddhist stupas or chortens.
Indeed, as a prototype, that architectural form would also comport with the very mountain metaphor inherent to Kailasha, or Su-Meru, in the northwestern Himalayas -site of the celestial Siva/
Parvathi embrace, the most sacred mountain in the world to Hindus and Buddhists. See Chhabra,
2015, p. 288.
47 ibid., p. 235.
48 See “Connecting Habitats to Prevent Species Extinctions,” by Stuart L. Pimm and Clinton
H. Jenkins, American Scientist, https://www.americanscientist.org/article/connecting-habitats-toprevent-species-extinctions, Accessed April 14, 2020.
49 See https://www.census2011.co.in/census/state/tamil+nadu.htm, Accessed April 14, 2020; For
Nilgiris specific population trends, see https://www.census2011.co.in/census/district/31-the-nilg41.9 Their Future
Adjoining the temple is a large circular area, the pen, surrounded by stones,
where the buffaloes rest and sleep during the one lunar month of the year, in the
dry season, when the temple is in operation. Its dairyman priest—
“pohkarrdhpawll(zh)”—a Kerrir clan member absolutely free of any pollution, as
stipulated in the deeply entrenched ethical contract of dairying strictures that guide
the entire world of the Toda,
47
is there to ensure its inviolable sanctity and protect
the buffalo (or, as the case may be, find succor and protection in their company).
We reached the temple along a specific path, leech-ridden as one drew close, and
paid our many respects. This primeval setting emanated its inexpressibly stable ecosystem, an interdependent alliance of biodiversity, non-violence, and sheer love
engaging one and all. We had little doubt that the pugmarks of the various large cats,
were, at most, five minutes separated from our own passage into this thicket of primordial spirituality. And that when we headed back up the muddy allée toward the
distant hamlet in darkness, cold-drenching mists, common in winter throughout the
Nilgiris, swirling around us, that all those animals were watching. Permitting us to
pass. They read our hearts.
Emerging from the thickness of wind, rain, and encroaching darkness, several
Toda buffaloes wandered past us, at their ease, undisturbed, a mother keeping a calf
from losing the path.
41.9 Their Future
We thought back to various theories of island biogeography, and the notion that is
quite key to conservation currents, namely, the reality of habitat fragments throughout the world, of populations confined to and dependent upon small ranges.
48
In the
case of both the Toda buffaloes and the Todas themselves, there is little latitude for
expanding contiguity between biological fragments in the Nilgiris. However, while
Tamil Nadu population figures for the state continue to increase, as in all of India,
total population numbers within the Nilgiris have been steadily declining, from a
high in 2001 of 762,141, to 735,394 in 2011 (essentially the population of Bhutan),
and continuing on that trajectory of diminution.
49
That is good news for biodiversity
temple style of South Indian vimana, a prototypic 7-story towering structure that has also been
replicated in Northern Indian temple shikara, as well as Tibetan Buddhist stupas or chortens.
Indeed, as a prototype, that architectural form would also comport with the very mountain metaphor inherent to Kailasha, or Su-Meru, in the northwestern Himalayas -site of the celestial Siva/
Parvathi embrace, the most sacred mountain in the world to Hindus and Buddhists. See Chhabra,
2015, p. 288.
47 ibid., p. 235.
48 See “Connecting Habitats to Prevent Species Extinctions,” by Stuart L. Pimm and Clinton
H. Jenkins, American Scientist, https://www.americanscientist.org/article/connecting-habitats-toprevent-species-extinctions, Accessed April 14, 2020.
49 See https://www.census2011.co.in/census/state/tamil+nadu.htm, Accessed April 14, 2020; For
Nilgiris specific population trends, see https://www.census2011.co.in/census/district/31-the-nilg41.9 Their Future