Amphibians of India website launched

http://www.indianamphibians.org/

The ballooning male of the bush frog, Raorchestes jayarami, announced a very happy news today: there is now an Amphibians of India website that promises to be another resounding success in citizen science. Following the successful Facebook group, Reptiles and Amphibians of India, and inspired by the powerful online platform of the Butterflies of India website, we hope that this website will provide a critical resource on amphibian diversity that has been sorely missing in India. 

The Amphibians of India website has three main objectives: 

1. consolidate available information on diversity and distribution,
2. actively collect new information on all aspects of Indian amphibians through research
3. communicate this information with policy makers and work with various governing bodies so that the information is used to conserve amphibians and their habitats in India. 

Most of this work will be done as a collaborative scientific enterprise involving both professional and citizen scientists.
We also hope that our highly integrated community of amateur naturalists, professional scientists, educators and conservationists will both build this online platform and use the information generated here for effective conservation of Indian amphibians. Please email if you have any comments or wish to contribute to this website in various ways.

- Varad Giri, Sandeep Das, Akshay Khandekar, Purnendu Roy, and Krushnamegh Kunte
editors, Amphibians of India. 
11 September 2017.

Reptiles of India website launched

http://www.indianreptiles.org/

Following the incredible success of the Facebook group, Reptiles and Amphibians of India, of which all of you are hopefully members, we have taken the next step in not only bringing together the Indian herpetology community, but also providing them a critical resource that has been sorely missing. With the Reptiles of India website, we aim to work towards three main objectives: 

(1) consolidate available information on Indian reptiles and make it freely available on the website, 

(2) actively collect new information on all aspects of Indian reptiles through research, and 

(3) communicate this information with policy-makers and work with various governing bodies so that the information is used to conserve reptiles and their habitats in India. 

Like its sister websites, this website is heavily dependent on citizen scientists. 

This website is built upon the powerful online framework developed by the Butterflies of India website. We hope that we will flourish just as well as that website with the strong herpetologist community that exists in India. We also hope that we can come together as a strongly integrated community of amateur naturalists, professional scientists, educators and conservationists in both building this online platform and using the information generated here for effective conservation of Indian reptiles. Please email us if you have any comments, wish to contribute to this website, or want to join us in various capacities. 

 - Varad Giri, Akshay Khandekar, Nikhil Gaitonde, Purnendu Roy, and Krushnamegh Kunte, editors, Reptiles of India. 23 August 2017.

• Giri, V., A. Khandekar, N. Gaitonde, P. Roy, and K. Kunte. 2017. Latest News And Updates. In Giri, V., A. Khandekar, N. Gaitonde, P. Roy, and K. Kunte (eds.). Reptiles of India, v. 1.00. Indian Foundation for Butterflies.

Mad about frogs!

This is a video feature about the Project Lost Amphibians. A project surveying India for Amphibians. Features Dr. S D. Biju, Varad Giri, Thingbath, Sonali, Gargi, Ashish, Robin, Don Church of Global Wildlife Conservation, and Bahar Dutt of CNN-IBN.

New lizard species found in India

Cnemasspis Kolhapurensis is endemic to parts of India's Western Ghats Scientists have discovered a new species of lizard in the lush Western Ghats mountain range in the Indian state of Maharashtra. The small reptile is a form of gecko and was found by taxonomist Varad Giri in the Kolhapur district. It has been named Cnemasspis kolhapurensis. Mr Giri and his co-workers published their findings in this month's edition of the Zootaxa journal. It is the third new species of lizard recently discovered in the area. Mr Giri, a curator at the Bombay Natural History Society, told the BBC that the Western Ghats has never been surveyed for amphibians and reptiles. "A gecko of this particular character has not been recognised elsewhere in the world," he said. Iridescent sheen Mr Giri said he first noticed the lizard in 2005 during a survey of one of the forests in the area. Taxonomist Varad Giri first noticed the lizard in 2005 "When I first stumbled across it, the lizard looked like a normal specimen," he said. "It was basically a form of gecko but then I saw that it was interesting because its scales were shiny." He said that when the gecko was held up in a certain light, the tail dorsum exhibited an "iridescent sheen". Iridescence is commonly reported in a variety of reptiles - but not geckos. Once Mr Giri and his co-workers had analysed the specimen, they realised it was a previously unknown species. They then enlisted the help of Dr Aaron M Bauer, an expert on lizards based at Villanova University in the US, to confirm the discovery. Cnemasspis kolhapurensis are mostly small in size and have a circular, rather than elliptical, pupil. They are generally found in forests although some have also been found in areas inhabited by humans. Mr Giri said it is a ground-dwelling specimen and can be seen in leaf litter or under rocks. 'Under threat' "Presently this species is known only to this area. It is endemic to the northern parts of the Western Ghats," he added. The Western Ghats mountain range is said to be one of the world's "biodiversity hotspots". But analysts say that the area is at risk of a biodiversity crisis, because it has long been under threat from logging and human encroachment. Mr Giri says the discovery may well help in arguments to preserve parts of the landscape. "This is really important now because there is a lot of human interference and deforestation," he said. Other new species of lizard previously discovered in the area were Hemidactlyus sataraensis and Hemidactylus aaronbaueri. Story