Purple Frog to be crowned Kerala’s state amphibian

May 7, 2019

Purple frog could be soon designated as Kerala’s state amphibian. The proposal for this is being mooted by Kerela’s leading Herpetologists (a specialist in study of reptiles and amphibians). The odd-looking species is endemic to Western Ghats. The title would help in protecting species fragile habitat.

About Purple Frog

Scientific Name: Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis (N. sahyadrensis).
It is also known as Maveli frog or Pignose Frog.
Features: Its body appears sturdy and swollen. It is relatively round in shape as compared to other flattened frogs. Compared to other frogs it has a small head and an unusual pointed snout (muzzle). In most cases adults are dark purplish-grey in color.
Habitat: For almost its entire life it lives in underground tunnels and comes out to surface for only a single day in a year to breed.
Distribution: They were thought to be limited to south of the Palghat Gap (a pass which is located between Nilgiri Hills to north and Anaimalai Hills to south) in Western Ghats, but are now known to be quite widely distributed in Western Ghats.
As per Herpetologists purple frog should rightly be called ‘living fossil’ as it is believed that they have co-existed with dinosaurs almost 70 million years ago.
IUCN Red List: Their conservation status is endangered as per International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).