Researchers pitch for a state frog

Mangaluru: Inspired by researchers from Kerala who plan to suggest the purple frog as the official frog for their state at the wildlife advisory board meeting to be held later this month, Karnataka too has said it will write to the government asking for a state frog.
Dr KV Gururaja, faculty, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology told TOI, said that they will write to the principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) and chairman, Karnataka Biodiversity Board. “We will propose a very common frog species as the state frog as this will help in conservation,” he said appreciating the efforts of Sandeep Das, a researcher at the Kerala Forest Research Institute, who has initiated the process for Kerala.
Two years ago, Dr Gururaja had suggested four common species for the national frog. These species included the Indian bull frog (Gonkra Kappe in Kannada) which is the largest among Indian frogs and toads, common Indian toad (Saamanya NelaKappe) that has a heavy body and appears obese and is covered with the characteristic warts of a toad, common skittering frog (Saamanya Chimmuva Kappe) is one of the most commonly found oriental frogs and the Common Tree Frog (Saamanya Mara Kappe), a nocturnal species. However, the process was not taken forward.
“The idea to nominate a common species as a national species is to remove the tag of being critically endangered or rare associated with them. For a region, (example Kerala), it may be a good idea to have "Nasikabatrachus sp. (Pig nosed frog)" a rare and threatened species as it is very region specific, but this may not hold good at the national level as people from other states may not know about it,” said Dr Gururaja.
Having a state or a national frog may not directly benefit scientists and conservationists, but will certainly enhance people’s participation towards conservation. The idea is to motivate people in knowing certain species which are very common, he added.