There is one thing that can coax the purple frogs of the rainforests of Anamalais in Tamil Nadu from their underground burrows — rain. Also known as pignose frog, the purple-pigmented frog endemic to the Western Ghats in India, emerges very briefly every year for a few days during the monsoons to breed. As a part of an education series from the Tamil Nadu Forest Department, a new film now turns the spotlight on this endangered species.
According to researchers, the frog is related to a family of frogs found in Seychelles. While the small and unusual frog, resembling a tortoise without a shell, may come across as odd in appearance, each quirk in its anatomy is the result of countless years of evolution.
Small eyes, a long snout, and short limbs equipped with hardened ‘spades’ enables the frog to spend almost its entire life below the ground. A relict from the age of the dinosaurs, its ancestors inhabited the rainforest streams of the southern Western Ghats including the rainforests of Valparai in the Anamalais, for over 130 million years.
