COORG NIGHT FROG - Nyctibatrachus sanctipalustris

By P. VENUGOPAL, The Hindu

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, September 15, 2011

The Western Ghats region in the country, a global biodiversity hotspot, has opened up more of its secrets — this time a dozen species of night frogs hitherto unknown to science.

S.D. Biju of the University of Delhi and researchers from Bombay Natural History Society, Zoological Survey of India and Vrije University in Brussels, published the new finds in the latest issue of the international journal of zoological taxonomy ‘Zootaxa’.

Their paper also announces the rediscovery of three night frogs thought to be extinct for the last several decades.

In a press release on Thursday, the University of Delhi said the rediscovered Coorg Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus sanctipalustris) had not been seen by researchers since it was reported 91 years ago. The Kempholey Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus kempholeyensis) and Forest Night Frog (Nyctibatrachus sylvaticus), the other two rediscoveries, had eluded sighting since they were reported 75 years ago.

The 12 new species were identified following a revision of the night frog genus Nyctibatrachus from specimens collected from the Western Ghats forests spread along the States of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra during fieldwork over the last 20 years, the press release said.

The researchers have named the new species as Nyctibatrachus acanthodermis, Nyctibatrachus danieli, Nyctibatrachus devein, Nyctibatrachus gavi, Nyctibatrachus grandis, Nyctibatrachus indraneili, Nyctibatrachus jog, Nyctibatrachus periyar, Nyctibatrachus pillaii, Nyctibatrachus poocha, Nyctibatrachus shiradi and Nyctibatrachus vrijeuni. (The name Nyctibatrachus is composed of two words — ‘nycti’ derived from the Greek ‘nux’ meaning night and ‘batrachus’ meaning frog).

These new discoveries take the number of new species described by herpetologist Dr. Biju and his colleagues over the last eight years from specimens collected from the Western Ghats during two decades of field work to 45. One of the earlier discoveries of the team led by him, a purple burrowing frog given the name Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis belonging to an entirely new family of frogs, was celebrated by the scientific world as a “once in a century find”.

Six of the 12 new species are from unprotected, highly degraded habitats. The night frogs require unique habitats — either fast flowing streams or moist forest floor for breeding and survival. They fertilise and reproduce without physical contact. The paper reporting these finds also describes the reproductive strategy and parental care habits of six of the new species.

MUMBAI: Two Andheri-based researchers have discovered two new species of a genus of trapdoor spiders from the southern Western Ghats.

The species—Scalidognathus nigriaraneus and Scalidognathus tigerinus—have been discovered from the Nilgiri and Coimbatore districts. The find by Rajesh Sanap and Zeeshan Mirza has been published in the latest edition of international journal, Acta Zoologica Lituanica.

“Until now, there was only one known species of the genus Scalidognathus found in India. This discovery has added two more in this group,” said Sanap, who had also discovered a new species of scorpion in Jalna recently. He added that since trapdoor spiders were poorly documented, they had decided to carry out the survey in the Western Ghats of Tamil Nadu in January.

CHENNAI:The Western Ghats has failed to make it to the Unesco’s World Natural Heritage Sites list, with the World Heritage Committee, which met in Paris on Wednesday, rejecting India’s application in this regard for the time being.

While the committee included 25 sites on the list, including three natural properties, 21 cultural and one mixed site, the Western Ghats was not among them. Earlier, Rabindranath Tagore’s Santhinekatan, the second entry from India, was dropped from the list of sites being considered for inclusion in the natural heritage sites list.

The only good news for India from the meeting this year is that the Manas Wildlife Sanctuary in Assam has been taken off the “danger list.”

MUMBAI: Scientists from the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), in collaboration with researchers from Natural History Museum, London, have discovered a new species of caecilian (legless amphibian) from the Western Ghats.

The species—Gegeneophis pareshi—was discovered from a mixed small plantation garden by Varad Giri,David Gower, Kshamata Gaikwad and Mark Wilkinson. It is the 23rd caecilian species to be discovered in the Western Ghats. The findings have been published in the latest edition of the scientific journal Zootaxa.

“The species is commonly found in human-modified habitats and can be identified by lack of scales, distinct colour pattern and its bullet shaped head,” said Giri, curator at the BNHS, who co-authored the journal article on the new species. “The species was first spotted in 2009 by a BNHS survey team in southern Goa, after which we visited the site and studied it for the next three years,” he added.

Scientists said G. pareshi is a burrowing amphibian and its diet consists mainly of earthworms and dead insects. In fact, caecilians are the least understood of the three kinds of amphibians—the first two being frogs and salamanders. Caecilians are legless burrowers, chiefly characterized by rings around their body.

The scientists have named the species after a range forest officer, Paresh Porab, for his efforts in conservation of wildlife in the Goa region. “This is just a small way to recognize his good work,” said Giri.

The research, funded by Ruffords Small Grants and the Ministry of Environment and Forests, was part of the scientific collaboration between BNHS and the Natural History Museum. The two organizations have been working together on amphibians for several years now. Till about a decade ago, there were no reports of caecilians from areas in the Western Ghats region like southern Goa. Since 2003, seven new species of caecilians have been discovered from the Western Ghats. “We need to carry out more surveys to identify more new species,” said Giri.

THENI. 24 A pril, 2011

The Western Ghats is home to many endangered species of flora. Continuous research in Megamalai and forest surrounding Mangaladevi Kannagi Temple in Theni district has proved that southern parts of Western Ghats is the origin for ‘matti’ bananas ( Musa Accuminata), a variety predominantly grown only in Kanyakumari district in the State.

Researchers believe that this cultivable variety could have been evolved from continuous domestication of the ‘wild matti’ present in the southern Western Ghats, said V. Ganesan, District Forest Officer.

Hill banana is a popular fruit in the country, known for its nutritional value. The origin of this species had been traced to the Indo-Malayan belt. Cultivatable banana evolved from two wild species — ‘ Musa acuminata’ and ‘ Musa Balbisiana.’ Though various varieties such as ‘Poovan,’ ‘Rasthali,’ red banana, Hill banana, Nendran, Monthan, dwarf Cavendish, Ney poovan and ‘matti’ are famous in various part of the State, knowledge about wild species was very limited, Mr. Ganesan said.

A related genus of ‘kalvazhai’ ( Ensete Superbum), known to occur on Western Ghats, was found in Mangaladevi Kannagi Temple forest area recently.

Plant exploration and expeditions conducted by the forest officer in the rainforests abutting private estates in Megamalai, one of the biodiversity hotspots in Western Ghats, resulted in discovery of the wild banana, popularly known as ‘Channa vazhai.’ After in-depth study of morphological characters of leaves, pseudo stem, flowers and fruits, the variety resembled to that of cultivated ones.

Similar study conducted on various parts of Western Ghats between Anamalai and Kanyakumari in the past decade confirmed the origin of ‘Matti’ variety of the wild banana, Mr. Ganesan said.

PUNE: The Western Ghats ecology expert panel, set up by the Union ministry of environment and forests has called for sustainable and inclusive development, stress on public trust doctrine and ‘polluter pays’ principle.

Chairman of the panel Madhav Gadgil, at a recent meeting of the panel, highlighted that the present exclusion-based development and conservation practice was being followed in the Western Ghats.

The nine-member panel was established in February 2010 for recommending measures and assisting the government in the preservation and conservation of environmentally sensitive and ecologically significant region of Western Ghats.

Gadgil pointed out that participatory approach would be adopted for the formulation of development strategy for each area in the Western Ghat. “Lessons could be taken from the environmental policies of Sikkim, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and also from other countries, such as Costa Rica, Australia and Norway. The payment for ecosystem services could provide a model for incentivizing conservation and sustainable development, as has been done in Australia and Costa Rica,” he said.

The panel adopted geospatial grid based approach for identification of ecologically sensitive areas whereby ecological sensitivity was scored. Gadgil stated that the panel will consider inputs from the local public as in case of gram sabhas of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts and the proposals from non governmental organizations, as was done in the case of Kodagu, Sahyadri and Kodachadri to demarcate ecologically-sensitive areas.

According to him, the panel proposes to classify the whole Western Ghats as an ecologically significant area. There would be different zones of ecological sensitivity, which would vary from zone of highest sensitivity to zone of low sensitivity. The nomenclature of the zones could be eco-sensitive core, ESZ1, ESZ2, ESZ3.

There would also be a section on management regimes to be adopted in Western Ghats. The management strategy would focus on conservation and efficient use of resources. The panel proposes to prepare development strategy for various sectors with respect to the eco-sensitive core, ESZ1, ESZ2, ESZ 3.

Gadgil said it would be meaningful to introduce threats as a variable in the geospatial grid methodology for calculating ecological sensitivity. As a first step, dams, highways, railways and mines could be depicted on the geospatial map.

The complete proposals for ecologically-sensitive areas would be prepared by adopting the participatory approach with the involvement of the local people in the planning process. The participatory process would be finalized in the next meeting of the panel at Kerala Institute of Local Administration from May 3-5, 2011.

The division bench of the High Court, comprising Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice A S Bopanna, asked all other companies except Bangalore-based Maruti Power-gen (India) Pvt Ltd, not to go ahead with their hydel projects. Maruti Power-gen, which has completed 70 percent of works, can continue with its project, but it will be subject to the final orders the High Court will deliver later, the bench clarified.

With this, eight prestigious power projects including Murdeshwar Power Corporation, Swarna Energy Ltd, and Mysore Merchantile Ltd, who have obtained clearance for installing hydel projects, will have to wait the outcome of the case.

The court passed this order, while hearing a public interest petition filed by ‘Western Ghats Environment Forum’, which has questioned the decision taken to set up 137 mini hydel projects at various places in Western Ghats located within Uttara Kannada district. The petitioner has said that this region, which is rich in forests, has already suffered irreversibly because of mega projects. The petition also notes that thousands of trees will get uprooted for these projects, and rare species of birds and animals get destroyed if these projects are executed. By the leasing out of forest land to private persons, the greenery and valuable medicinal plants and bushes also will get destroyed, and environment will be adversely affected, the petitioner has contended. The organization also has argued that by investing the same funds for augmenting solar power, the expected generation of power can be achieved, and rural people can get benefit out of it.

 A rare instance of a Green vine snake (Ahaetulla nasuta) preying upon a Large scaled shieldtail (Uropeltis macrolepis macrolepis) was recorded by herpetologist Nirmal Kulkarni and his team in the Chorla Ghats forests of the Mhadei Bio region on the 15th of August 2010.

Interestingly, the Green Vine snake is a partially arboreal species of snake while the large scaled shieldtail is an inoffensive burrowing forest species that is endemic to the Western Ghats of India.

This is the second report of a Green Vine snake feeding on a shieldtail snake in the Northern Western Ghats of India, the first report being from Maharashtra by herpetologist and Curator of the Bombay Natural History Society Mr. Varad Giri a few years ago.

The Green Vine snake is uncommonly seen on ground and feeds mainly on lizards, frogs and small birds. It is a mildly venomous snake and the venom is capable of paralyzing small prey.

Shieldtail snakes are strictly forest species of burrowing snakes that are usually encountered under humus or leaf litter in dense forest habitats of the Western Ghats forests and are known to be highly elusive in most of their range. Encountered in thickly forested areas or on the fringes of forest habitats and open patches, Shieldtail snakes can be observed and studied only in the 4 months of monsoon period in the field, after which they burrow under the forest floor, sometimes even 2-3 feet in the soil. The specie documented in the Mhadei Bioregion includes the large scaled shieldtail, the pied belly shieldtail and the Elliot’s shieldtail.

There is a lacuna of knowledge about these species whose ecology and habitat preference is lest known merely from a few observations and hence the current observations of predator prey relationships with a partially arboreal species are considered important by researchers.

The team observed the large scaled shieldtail being caught at mid body by the Green Vine snake and pulled up from the leaf litter to 1 foot above the ground to be swallowed head first followed by the complete snake. The entire time span of the incident was approx 40 minutes after which the Vine snake proceeded to a higher branch at 5 feet above the ground and remained there for 20 minutes before moving again.

The approx length of the Green vine snake was 3 feet while the large scaled shieldtail was approx 12 inches. Non-intrusive observations and photo documentation were carried out to document the behavior of the two species and the observations are being reported to the Center for Herpetology as well as the Indian Herpetological society for information.

The incident was recorded at 630 meters above sea level in secondary forest vegetation and the skies were partially cloudy. The humidity at the time was 78 percent and the temperature was 28 degrees Celsius. Other data including GPS locations and the dominant vegetation in the area was Makad limbu (Atlantia monophylla) and False guava (Catunaregam spinarum). The nearest water source to the area was approx 4 meters away from the incident.

The team consisted of Mr. Nirmal Kulkarni and Mr. Krishna Gawas affiliated to the Mhadei Research Center and Mr. Sunil Patil a volunteer.

Legend has it that Tipu Sultan’s army spent few days in the village, its horse cavalry lent the village its name (kudra means horse). For the community, the incident is just an episode in history. The community lives in harmony with nature, extracting non-timber forest products like kokum, wild date palm and honey for its daily survival. Kokum, known as Garcinia indica, is the mainstay of local economy.

Indigenous to the Western Ghats, garcinia is a tree whose fruits have culinary, pharmaceutical and industrial uses. However, the community in the vilage has been trading in dried garcinia rind ever since, getting 2 kgs worth of dried rind from a 20 kg harvest. Same is true for date palm leaves, a weaved mattress fetches them a meagre rupee for a square feet of efforts. However, there has been dramatic turnaround in the local economy during last one year.

Thanks to value addition by Prakruti, a community-based organisation, the community now gets ten times on each square feet of palm mattress and as much as Rs 60 for each kilogram of garcinia syrup. One of the village women, Era Gowda, told us that the net gain to the village through value addition activities has been worth over Rs 75,000 during the year. Villagers are enthused to draw maximum from such efforts.

Garcinia Syrup get better price	Kokum Fruits

Value addition activities are small innovations that have been conveniently adopted by the villagers. While date palm mattresses are woven in attractive designs and patterns for value addition, kokum is turned into a juice concentrate through a series of easy steps. Moisture reduction is at the core of making the juice concentrate, a 20-30 per cent moisture reduction improves its shelf life.

The efforts by the community only reinforces what academic research has long postulated. In one research, it was found that net annual value of timber over a ten-year cycle was Rs. 239 million as compared to coresponding NTFP (non-timber forest products) value of Rs. 685 million. The research had drawn macro picture for Uttara Kannada district only. However, it is important to observe that unlike timber the benefits from NTFP flow directly to local communities.

While Prakruti is trying to map the entire value chain around garcinia and date palm, the issue worth examining is that since 120 million forest dwellers cannot shift to urban centres and become software engineers, professionals and service providers, their livelihoods can only be secured by improving a large number of microeconomic activities based on local produce in the villages.

The crucial question remains: whether or not market linkage through value addition increases community’s vulnerability and alters its harmonious relationship with forests? Pitched against such question is an opportunity in the emerging global market for environmental products and services that is projected to double to US $2,740 billion by 2020 from the present $1,370 billion per year.

(for more information on the initiative contact Prakruti at appiko@gmail.com)

The newly discovered species, located in the Eravikulam National Park, is restricted to less than three sq. km on the summit of Anamudi and deserves immediate conservation priority, scientists said in the latest edition of Current Science. (http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/25apr2010/1119.pdf)

“Despite intensive searches in a suitable habitat close to the type locality, we were unable to locate this species in any other place,” said the team — comprising S.D. Biju of Delhi University and Franky Bossuyt of the Free University of Brussels — which has assigned the frog the name Raorchestes resplendens.

The other members of the team include Yogesh Shouche of the National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, Alain Dubois of the France-based Reptiles et Amphibians, and S. Dutta from North Orissa University.

“One of the most striking features of the frog is the presence of numerous macroglands, which is absent in all species of Philautus, Pseudophilatus and Raorchestes presently known and thus are derived characters,” the scientists said.

The first part of the generic name of this relative of the shrub frogs honours Professor C.R. Narayan Rao (1882-1960) for his contributions to the study of amphibians. Professor Rao taught zoology at Central College here.

The latter part of the name Raorchestes is based on the first-ever generic name coined for frogs — Orchestes.

The scientists found that the female buried eggs under the moss-covered forest floor, deep inside the base of bamboo clumps. Later, they observed the eggs hatching from what looked like glass bubbles in their lab.

The observations have also suggested that the female may mate with multiple males or breed more than once in a single season. “The short limbs have resulted in a more pronounced crawling behaviour in this species compared to its congeners,” the researchers added.

Dr. Bossuyt and Professor Biju previously discovered a purple frog with a bulbous body and pointy snout in the peaks of the Western Ghats. They analysed the amphibian’s DNA and demonstrated that its closest living relatives were the so-called ‘Sooglossids frogs’ of the Seychelles.

The species, dubbed Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis, diverged from the Sooglossids about 130 million years ago, prior to the break-up of India and the Seychelles around 65 million years ago.