Most of India's amphibians may go extinct: Biologist
NEW DELHI: To discover a new species is a huge honour for a biologist. By that yardstick, the achievements of Dr Sathyabhama Das Biju, an amphibian biologist at Delhi University, are staggering. He has discovered 42 species and is in the process of describing another 28, six new genera and one family - all of frogs.
Meet India's Frog Man, the champion of our amphibian diversity. This week, The Economist magazine featured him on its cover, a rare recognition for an Indian scientist. But for Biju, being in the limelight is an opportunity to make people aware of our vanishing wealth - 66% of Indian amphibians are under the threat of extinction, and if these little creatures vanish, a major ecological imbalance would follow.
"Amphibians were the first land animals and have a 350-million-year history. They are an environmental barometer and we can analyse the quality of our environment by studying them. We cannot imagine life without frogs. If there are no frogs, it would not be possible to grow anything in our fields," he says.
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