The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Rare frog spotted in central Kerala forest

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 02, 2006

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Rare frog spotted in central Kerala forest

Special Correspondent

Second sighting of the frog that was earlier discovered from Idukki in 2003

UNIQUE FIND: The rare frog that was spotted in the Western Ghats forest.

Thiruvananthapuram: Scientists at the Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI) at Palode, near here, have spotted a rare species of frog whose ancestors are believed to have evolved in the shadow of dinosaurs millions of years ago.

Last month, a team of scientists stumbled upon the species on the banks of a rivulet during a scientific expedition deep into the Western Ghats forests in central Kerala.

This is the second sighting of the frog that was earlier discovered from Idukki in 2003. The first find of the species, Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis, was reported by Franky Bossuyt from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University of Brussels) and S.D. Biju from TBGRI. It hogged the global limelight as the first major discovery of a new frog family since 1926.

The scientific name of the animal derives from the Sanskrit nasika (nose) referring to the pointed snout, batrachus, Greek for frog, and Sahyadri, the local name of the Western Ghats. Also known as purple frog or pignose frog, the batrachian measures about 7 cm in length and has a bloated body, podgy legs and pointed snout. DNA analysis carried out on the frog suggested that its common ancestor lived 130 million years ago, when the planet's landmasses were joined together into a giant super-continent called Gondwana.

Scientists believe that the second sighting of the species in another part of central Kerala indicates a wider distribution of the species. The team came across the frog during a mission sponsored by the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment to document the indigenous knowledge relating to plants used as food and medicine.

The location of the find and the identity of the tribal community have been concealed to discourage multinational pharmaceutical companies that are constantly on the prowl to appropriate biological resources and traditional knowledge for research. The tribal community in the area reportedly uses the frog, both as food and medicineThe remains are mixed with locally available herbs for medicinal fumigation. The fat is also extracted and used as a medicine for a variety of common ailments.

According to S. Rajasekharan, leader of the mission team, the present recording is evidence that the species is distributed over a wider part of the Western Ghats region. According to the tribals, the frog spends most of the year underground, surfacing only for about two weeks, during the monsoon, for mating.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala