Frog last seen in 1874 found again

India's dwindling wildlife got a boost when biologists in Tamil Nadu found a frog after 136 years, the oldest rediscovery in the global wildlife history. Chetan Chauhan reports.

Updated on: Feb 17, 2011, 01:23:58 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India's dwindling wildlife got a boost when biologists in Tamil Nadu found a frog after 136 years, the oldest rediscovery in the global wildlife history.

Five frogs lost 30 to 136 years ago have been found, earning India acclaim from International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Conservation International, two leading global wildlife groups.

The most amazing discovery is of the striking green fluorescent frog, known as Chalazodes Bubble-nest, which was last seen in south Western Ghats in 1874. Its only specimen in the world is in a British Museum.

"After 1874 the amphibian has now been seen in Kodayar, Tamil Nadu," said Dr S D Biju, biologist with Delhi University and coordinator for an ambitious project of department of science and technology to rediscover lost 50 Indian amphibian species. India has 321 recorded amphibian species of which 13% have been lost due to human interference.

The uniqueness of the Bubble-nest is its ash blue thighs and black pupils with golden patches and its secret life, especially during the day inside the reeds. It is a frog, which does not go through the free-swimming tadpole stage.

The second discovery from south Western Ghats of Anamalai is the Dot-frog, named after Anamalai hills, where they were last seen 73 years ago. Now it has been found in Parambikulum area of Kerala. A silent amphibian, Dot-frogs croak loudly only during monsoons, especially when its hiding places get filled up with water.

While the first two discoveries were by scientists, Delhi University graduate students rediscovered Dehradun Stream Frog after a gap of 25 years in Chakrata, Uttarakhand.

The fourth and the fifth rediscovery of Silent Valley Tropical Frog, last seen 30 years ago, and Elegant Tropical Frog, last seen 73 years ago, were in Kerala and Karnataka, respectively.

India launched Lost Amphibians Initiative with support of former cricketer Anil Kumble and other global partners in 2010 to trace 50 lost species, of which five have been rediscovered. "We are working towards finding the remaining 45," Biju said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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