The critically endangered Indian vulture — also known as Gyps Indicus — is not the only rare inhabitant of Bejjur forest in Adilabad. The 253 square kilometre thickly forested area abutting the banks of Pranahita river on the eastern side of this district is a biodiversity haven, a fact which has re-emerged thanks to the recent discovery of a rare frog in the area.
On September 16, Polasa Tirupathi, a bird tracker working with the Forest Department, spotted a painted frog — the Uperodon Taprobanicus — on a tree within the campus of the Bejjur Forest Range office. “We had a hunch that this has to be a rare species when we first saw it,” recalled an excited Bejjur Forest Range Officer, M. Ram Mohan, and Ravikanth Manchiryala, field biologist-researcher of the vulture conservation project, as they discussed the amphibian found for the first time in Telangana.
“Hyderabad based wildlife researchers from the Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agriculture University, B. Laxmi Narayana and B. Naresh, soon identified it as the Indian Painted Frog. More research revealed that the find was important as it fell outside the mapped distribution area of the Uperodon Taprobanicus, which extends from Sri Lanka to Bengal,” Mr. Manchiryala said.
The species of frog in question is found in tree holes, burrows, pollution-free wetland, and riverine areas, according to available record of its distribution.
Endemic species
“The find clearly indicates that the area supports various endemic and threatened species, and calls for improved conservation efforts,” opined the in-charge Bejjur Range Officer, A. Venkateshwarlu.
The Uperodon Taprobanicus belongs to microhylidae family and is listed as least concern species by the Switzerland based International Union for Conservation of Nature. The United Kingdom based International Reptile Conservation Foundation will publish it in the ‘Journal of IRCF Reptiles and Amphibians: Conservation and Natural History’.
The pristine Bejjur reserve forest on the Pranahita basin, which also boasts of the Peddavagu stream cutting across, is home to a host of species of flora and fauna. The over 50 types of trees include the tall Narepa Chettu, Hardwickia Binata, the insectivorous Drosera Burmanni, and the flagship Tectona Grandis or the famous teak.
Its wildlife includes the rare striped hyena, leopard, almost all the ungulates except the gaur, and even the tiger. There are around 16 species of raptors in addition to over 50 avian species and about 15 kinds of reptiles, besides about 10 species of amphibians.
