{"id":17055,"date":"2023-09-11T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2023-09-11T10:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/?p=17055"},"modified":"2023-09-13T10:00:50","modified_gmt":"2023-09-13T10:00:50","slug":"herpetofauna-survey-11-09-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/11-09-2023\/herpetofauna-survey-11-09-2023","title":{"rendered":"Herpetofauna Survey\u00a0&#8211; 11-09-2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS-3\/Biodiversity and Conservation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">In News<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>first Herpetofauna Survey<\/strong> was conducted in Kerala\u2019s South Wayanad Forest Division.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">About<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Herpetofauna survey<\/strong> is done to identify and list all reptiles and amphibians such as frogs that can possibly be present within the proposed area.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This survey was organised jointly by the <strong>Forest department, South Wayanad Forest Development Agency, and Aranyakam Nature Foundation.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Key Findings:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>As many as <strong>67 species of reptiles and 59 species of amphibians<\/strong> were identified in the survey.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Out of <strong>126 species identified<\/strong>, <strong>48 amphibians<\/strong> and<strong> 21 reptiles<\/strong> are <strong>endemic<\/strong> to the Western Ghats.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The <strong>four amphibians and three reptiles<\/strong> were spotted for the <strong>first time<\/strong> at the forest division.\u00a0<br><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Species found:<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Important <strong>Amphibian species<\/strong> include <strong>Starry Night Frog <\/strong>(bearing a constellation of blue dots on its obsidian body),<strong> Miniature Night Frog<\/strong> (the tiniest frog in the country), the <strong>Naked Dancing Frog.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Endangered species<\/strong> such as<strong> Malabar Torrent Toad and Red Stream Toad.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Wayanad Dravidogecko, Nilgiri Spiny Lizard, and the Nilgiri Forest Lizard<\/strong> were also found.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">\u00a0About Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It is<strong> located in Kerala <\/strong>and was declared a Sanctuary in <strong>1973.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lh5.googleusercontent.com\/Skp9DLgs6Q86041jJUomsri5ZhaV8ymVvStmXAPn78VWmpsdaXdPIwkscUXJeF5oGUrddqSEjJnP55ICEDDRl2_ZnlPzH0RkLUFgYvdHRQKQCHQLd_bulEglFxmZvNLRRA-KBTN8FMjy2te-03YWkHE\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The sanctuary is a component of the <strong>Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (UNESCO designated) <\/strong>and is a vital component of the <strong>Elephant Reserve No. 7 of South India.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Highest peak: <\/strong>Karottimala&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Forest Types:<\/strong> South Indian Moist Deciduous forests, West coast semi-evergreen forests and plantations of teak, eucalyptus and Grewelia.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It is the<strong> only sanctuary of Kerala<\/strong> where sightings of <strong>four-horned antelopes <\/strong>have been reported.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The<strong> presence of Egyptian vultures, Himalayan griffon, and Cinereous vultures<\/strong> are also reported in the sanctuary and the two species of vultures, red-headed and white-backed vultures, once common in Kerala, are now restricted to the Wayanad plateau.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kabini river (a tributary of the Cauvery river) <\/strong>flows through the sanctuary.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Other wildlife parks within the Reserve:<\/strong> Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary, Bandipur National Park, Nagarhole National Park, Mukurthi National Park and Silent Valley.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/sci-tech\/energy-and-environment\/survey-records-67-species-of-reptiles-59-species-of-amphibians-in-south-wayanad-forest\/article67285481.ece#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Syllabus: GS-3\/Biodiversity and Conservation In News About Key Findings: \u00a0About Wayanad Wildlife Sanctuary\u00a0 Source: TH<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17055"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17055\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17056,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17055\/revisions\/17056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}