Hyderabad scientists race to save 80-million-year-old frog ‘Jewel of Gondwana’ from extinction

Hyderabad scientists are helping save Bhupathy’s Purple Frog, a rare species from the time of dinosaurs. It lives underground and comes out only during monsoon rains. Using sound technology, the team tracks and protects these frogs in the Western Ghats

Hyderabad: The researchers from Hyderabad are playing a vital role in the conservation of one of the most mysterious and endangered species of the Western Ghats, Bhupathy’s Purple Frog, scientifically known as Nasikbatrachus bhupati, which dates back to 80 million years, to the time the supercontinent Gondwana broke apart.

This amphibian species, often referred to as ‘Jewel of Gondwana’, virtually spends its entire life deep underground and is supremely hard to find. It emerges only to breed during the first heavy rains, a ritual it has p