77 frog species in Kerala staring at extinction, warns “Frog Man”

Seventy-seven out of the 181 frog species found in Kerala are facing threats of extinction, said herpetologist Sathyabhama Das Biju, widely known as Frogman of India, here on Tuesday.

He was addressing a meet-the-press organised by the Ernakulam Press Club. Quoting from the Red List published by the International Union for Conservation, Mr. Biju said that three species were critically endangered, 46 endangered, and 28 species were vulnerable.

He rued the lack of any conservation programmes for lower and non-charismatic species like frogs anywhere in the conservation agenda of the

State government with the programmes being restricted to elephants and tigers. Conservation, Mr. Biju said, would be pointless when focussed only on a few species instead of conservation of species in its entirety.

Nearly 40% of India’s 458 amphibian species are facing threats of extinction. While 14 species are critically endangered, 74 are endangered, and 49 have been categorised as vulnerable. Besides, another 31 species are in the near threatened category.

Mr. Biju attributed the amphibian declines in India to habitat destruction and degradation — caused primarily by agriculture, and cropland expansion. Effective conservation of amphibians of Kerala is possible through specialised programmes that focus on protecting their habitats, particularly wetlands. Many endangered amphibian species in the region exist outside protected areas and called for special attention and targeted efforts to preserve their breeding habitats.

“We cannot conserve everything in the world and hence need a policy to prioritise the conservation activities, including research. From the very outset, except for a few animals, we have always neglected prioritising research on the lower life forms. I am not just talking about frogs but about all those neglected non-charismatic species,” said Mr. Biju.

He said that there was a misconception that tiger conservation was the be all and end all when it comes to conservation. Policy makers are all ears when a tiger researcher talks but ignore researches on amphibians.

Globally 41% of amphibian species are threatened with extinction, which places amphibians as the most threatened land vertebrate group, he said citing a study by more than 100 researchers that was published in the scientific journal Nature in October 2024. This meant that that two out of every five amphibians are threatened with extinction.

Climate change was the primary threat for 39% of of the more than 8,000 amphibian species threatened globally. That number is likely to rise as better data and projections on species’ responses to climate change become available. Habitat destruction and degradation affected 93% of all threatened amphibian species. Climate change further exacerbated the effects of threats like habitat destruction and degradation, disease, and overexploitation.

Published - November 26, 2024 07:07 pm IST