How the Nilgiris are being rewilded: Inside India’s grassland and shola revival

At the 24-acre tea plantation in Ammagal Tea Estate in Udhagamandalam (Ooty), Tamil Nadu, a large number of deer can be sighted grazing quietly. The herbivore, in turn, brings predators such as dhole, leopard, and tiger.

This tea plantation within the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve has now been partly restored to its erstwhile indigenous grassland, shola and wetland habitat. “This year, we completed the first phase of restoring around eight acres. As it is a watershed for over 20 hamlets downstream, it has helped the little valley. The Nilgiri wood pigeon has moved into the area. Indian giant squirrels, sloth bears, and tigers have been seen,” says Ramneek Singh, co-founder of Edhkwehlynawd Botanical Refuge (EBR), an ecological sanctuary in the Nilgiris.

Ramneek Singh, co-founder of Edhkwehlynawd Botanical Refuge, an ecological sanctuary in the Nilgiris.
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Niligiri ecologist Vasanth Bosco in a restored patch.
| Photo Credit:
Arjun Cheyyur

Gaurs have returned to the restored shola grasslands in the Nilgiris.
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy EBR

The Nilgiris Plateau that lies at an elevation of about 900m-2,637m above sea level is spread over 2,000 sq.km. and has a forest cover of over 60%. Grasslands and tropical montane forests called sholas form a tightly interlinked mosaic in the upper Nilgiris. It is home to some of the most endangered animals, such as the Nilgiri langur, Nilgiri marten, and endemic grassland birds like the pipit, the laughing thrush and Nilgiri sholakili.

However, with 70% of the plateau replaced by plantations, invasive species, and exotics, less than 9% of that mosaic survives now; remaining in and around the Mukurthi National Park.

Deforestation driven by agricultural expansion, timber logging, infrastructure development and unregulated tourism has fragmented forests, degraded grasslands and disrupted wildlife movement, intensifying human-animal conflict, particularly with elephants, leading to not just crop loss, but also human casualties and animal deaths. Ecologists say that this cumulative damage has made rewilding essential. The current efforts focus on reviving native grasslands and shola forests, removing invasives, and enabling long-term co-existence between wildlife and local communities.

Clearing the dead overgrowth.
| Photo Credit:
Saipreeth Thattari

Clearing the lantana by The Shola Trust.
| Photo Credit:
Saipreeth Thattari

Save Aravallis, learn from Nilgiris

While ecologically fragile landscapes such as the Aravalli Hills and Great Nicobar Island are facing erasure due to mining projects and tourism and infrastructure development, respectively, the Nilgiris present a different narrative led by civil society movements, environmental groups, indigenous communities, and conservationists. Singh says, “We are restoring a small tea plantation. First, we had to get the tea uprooted, level the land and then plant over 10 different species of grasses and over 40 species of trees. Once the grasses took root, we introduced ground orchids, impatiens and various other plants found in the natural grasslands. This brings various species of ungulates and gaur to graze. We have documented 12 endemic birds and mammals like sambar, muntjac, mouse deer, Nilgiri langur, sloth bear, leopard, and the flagship species, the tiger.”

Over the last 12 years, Nilgiris-based restoration ecologist Vasanth Bosco has built a nursery with 150 native shola-grassland species which, he says, like all natives, can reclaim their ancestral ground with little support. In 2025 alone, he planted more than 25,000 native tussock grasses, shrubs, trees, herbs, and sedges, taken on 15 new restoration sites, and began work for the first time in the lower elevations, a zone neglected in ecological revival efforts, covering 3,000 acres in total. “We see each restoration site as a living laboratory. We are focusing on the often-overlooked groups like sedges, reeds, grasses, and herbs that play critical roles in ecosystem health,” he says. “In some places, we have brought back entire pockets of sholas and revived streams. At Doddabetta restoration, the highest mountain in the Nilgiris at 2,637 metres, bison, barking deer, leopards, and wild dogs have returned.”

Co-working with local tribes and knowledge

Kotagiri-based Keystone Foundation, which has been working with indigenous people and local communities for over three decades, has built five community-owned native species nurseries at different forest types, all managed by the locals. “We have identified more than 200 hectares of lands overtaken by invasive species and have started restoring it. These efforts have given us new knowledge on how to restore high-altitude wetlands and grasslands, to manage invasive species, and to grow shola forests, etc. This has also led to the stopping of old practices like planting trees in wetlands and on grasslands,” says Anita Varghese, director of biodiversity at the foundation and steering committee member, Ecological Restoration Alliance (ERA).

The traditional ecological knowledge of the Todas, one of the earliest tribes of the Nilgiris, has also been a guiding force in restoration. “In our planning, we use their knowledge: of the avful grass used to thatch their temples, to wild balsams — Nawtty — indicating yearly seasons and their stages. We also learnt that species like the Nilgiri Daphne-leaf and dye barberry can be used as pioneering species for shola restoration,” says retired dentist Tarun Chhabra, an expert on the indigenous Toda culture and ecology and co-founder of EBR.

Restoration work and invasive management by Keystone Foundation.
| Photo Credit:
Keystone Foundation

EBR co-founder Tarun Chhabra with Nilgiri Lily (Lilium neilgherrense) in Udhagamandalam.
| Photo Credit:
Sathyamoorthy M.

The grassy understory

Though restoring native forests on a large scale is a Herculean task, there have been ground-level interventions by the forest department too. At the heart of the department’s five-year programme, the Nilgiri Tahr Project, is the restoration of shola grasslands in areas like Upper Bhavani, once the habitat of the highly endangered state animal. “More than 34,000 hectares in Sathyamangalam and Mudumalai Tiger Reserves have been cleared of invasive lantana and Senna spectabilis. In the upper Nilgiris, the government is removing eucalyptus and wattle to restore native montane grasslands. With wildlife already returning to restored patches, it offers a chance to reverse the impact,” says Supriya Sahu, principal secretary (environment, climate change and forests).

The focus, as Tarsh Thekaekara of The Shola Trust says, is on creating functioning ecosystems that the forest can sustain by itself. “We have cleared around 50 hectares of lantana in Mudumalai and are bringing back native grasses. We already see greater number of mammals at our restored grassy areas. The droppings will act as natural fertiliser and spread the seeds. Deer and mammals will become our planters.”

Impatiens flowers reintroduced.
| Photo Credit:
Courtesy EBR

Restoration work by The Shola Trust in the Nilgiris.
| Photo Credit:
Saipreeth Thattari

Reviving underground water table

In addition to the wildlife they support, native forests are important for water security. Even an acre of native forests, when successfully brought back, can make a huge difference in the amount of water available for human habitation around and below the forest. “The natural landscape of shola, grasslands mosaic, absorbs all the rainwater through the year like a sponge and slowly releases it during the dry season, whereas the exotic tea and tree plantations don’t work in the same way, thus giving way to landslides and natural disasters in the district,” says Singh, adding, “Besides NGOs, corporate firms like Craigmore Plantations have recently started restoring a part of its large tea plantation.” This year’s efforts will also scale up restoration and launch systematic monitoring. 

Restoration work by the Shola Trust in the Nilgiris.
| Photo Credit:
Saipreeth Thattari

Restoration work in the Nilgiris.

Clearing the lantana.
| Photo Credit:
Saipreeth Thattari

Restoration work and invasive management.

Every restoration effort, however, is a negotiated relationship between the people, place, plants, and animals, reminds Suprabha Seshan, custodian of the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Wayanad, Kerala. “Clearing exotics, planting natives, working with communities are valuable but unless root causes like environmental toxification, chemical pollution, soil and water contamination are confronted, it remains only the ‘tip of the iceberg’.”

While such initiatives help build resilient landscapes, it most importantly, also restores the relationship that people and nature have had. Says ERA’s Varghese, “It’s the distance created between human development and nature conservation that is leading to widespread ecological disasters. Rewilding, ecological restoration are all ways to restore that relationship back. Many a time, we think of restoration as a way to go back to some past that can be reclaimed. But, in many sites, with the intensity of the degradation, one can only try to restore it to a new ecosystem with elements of the lost one.”

jeshi.jeshi@thehindu.co.in