DU Reader bags international conservation award

SD Biju, a reader in Delhi University, has bagged the prestigious US $ 25,000 Sabin Award of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Satyen Mohapatra reports.

SD Biju, a reader in Delhi University, has bagged the prestigious US $ 25,000 Sabin Award of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) for his studies and research in amphibian conservation.

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Biju is credited with discovering a new species of frogs, incidentally the smallest Indian frog, a few years ago. The award will be conferred on him in New York City on September17.

Talking to HT from Kerala, Biju said, “It’s an exciting moment for me and recognition of my research. I will use part of the money for frog research in the country.”

“Our frogs are fast depleting due to man-made activities and climate change but we still do not have quantitative data on the kind of effect climate change is having on the frogs of India,” Biju said.

Biju has been studying frogs for the last 15 years and has described more than 100 species. He discovered the smallest Indian frog –– Nyctibatrachus minimus –– in the Western Ghats of Kerala in 2007. The frog is just 10mm long.

Biju also found a new family of frogs from India, the Indian purple frog (family Nasika batrachidae) in 2003, which he says, “according to experts is a once-in-a-century find.”

India has about 286 species of frogs, 80-90 per cent of which were not found anywhere else in the world, Biju said.