376
and for one small group of Todas who depend upon the thousands of cohabiting
species.
Whether progressive regional and local forest regulations continue to accept the
responsibility for protecting an extremely vulnerable culture, and fragile ecosystems, represents the first challenge. The fieldworkers, forest civil servants, and others who must uphold those social and conservation decrees will be crucial to the
Toda’s day-to-day future. Eco-tourists to Ooty are often keen to see the Toda, and
there is a Toda “cultural village” of sorts, which should satiate most curiosity (a
cultural buffer zone/biological bubble). Moreover, a few of the hotels sell the fine
Toda embroidery, particularly their famed shawls. The network of parks and reserves
throughout the Nilgiris affords a spatially significant—forwardly conceived—
amount of habitat, certainly sufficient to safeguard one of the most robust clusters
of Asian elephant and tiger populations in the world, especially with multidisciplinary ecologist/activists, like Dr. Chhabra and Ramneek Singh and their colleagues in place.
What remains the greatest of the unknowns, however, is the future of the Toda
buffalo. Hybridization, genetic drift, any number of emerging infectious diseases,
50
other co-morbidity factors, all will impact not only an already attenuated Toda buffalo population and distribution throughout their traditional grazing lands, but
also—by zoosemiotic implication—the very existence of their humble stewards, the
last Indian indigenous vegetarian collective on the planet.
iris.html, Accessed April 14, 2020.
50 See “Emerging Infectious Diseases in Water Buffalo: An Economic and Public Health Concern,”
by Marvin A. Villanueva, Claro N. Mingala, Gabriel Alexis S. Tubalinal, Paula Blanca V. Gaban,
Chie Nakajima and Yasuhiko Suzuki, IntechOpen, February 21, 2018, https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.73395,
falo-an-economic-and-public-health-concern/emerging-infectious-diseases-in-water-buffaloan-economic-and-public-health-concern, Accessed April 14, 2020. Write the Authors,
“Leptospirosis, brucellosis, Bovine Tb, BVDV and fasciolosis have projected economic impact to
water buffalo industry as well as its effect as zoonoses. However, the data seem underquantified
since most are neglected diseases…”
41 The Conical Temple of Konawsh
and for one small group of Todas who depend upon the thousands of cohabiting
species.
Whether progressive regional and local forest regulations continue to accept the
responsibility for protecting an extremely vulnerable culture, and fragile ecosystems, represents the first challenge. The fieldworkers, forest civil servants, and others who must uphold those social and conservation decrees will be crucial to the
Toda’s day-to-day future. Eco-tourists to Ooty are often keen to see the Toda, and
there is a Toda “cultural village” of sorts, which should satiate most curiosity (a
cultural buffer zone/biological bubble). Moreover, a few of the hotels sell the fine
Toda embroidery, particularly their famed shawls. The network of parks and reserves
throughout the Nilgiris affords a spatially significant—forwardly conceived—
amount of habitat, certainly sufficient to safeguard one of the most robust clusters
of Asian elephant and tiger populations in the world, especially with multidisciplinary ecologist/activists, like Dr. Chhabra and Ramneek Singh and their colleagues in place.
What remains the greatest of the unknowns, however, is the future of the Toda
buffalo. Hybridization, genetic drift, any number of emerging infectious diseases,
50
other co-morbidity factors, all will impact not only an already attenuated Toda buffalo population and distribution throughout their traditional grazing lands, but
also—by zoosemiotic implication—the very existence of their humble stewards, the
last Indian indigenous vegetarian collective on the planet.
iris.html, Accessed April 14, 2020.
50 See “Emerging Infectious Diseases in Water Buffalo: An Economic and Public Health Concern,”
by Marvin A. Villanueva, Claro N. Mingala, Gabriel Alexis S. Tubalinal, Paula Blanca V. Gaban,
Chie Nakajima and Yasuhiko Suzuki, IntechOpen, February 21, 2018, https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.73395,
falo-an-economic-and-public-health-concern/emerging-infectious-diseases-in-water-buffaloan-economic-and-public-health-concern, Accessed April 14, 2020. Write the Authors,
“Leptospirosis, brucellosis, Bovine Tb, BVDV and fasciolosis have projected economic impact to
water buffalo industry as well as its effect as zoonoses. However, the data seem underquantified
since most are neglected diseases…”
41 The Conical Temple of Konawsh