At the Windermere cardamom estate in Idukki, Kerala, Hadlee Renjith — a naturalist, frog enthusiast, and founder of wildlife tour company Resplendent Experiences — and his team have built artificial ponds to mimic a frog’s natural environment. Their efforts bore fruit when the Anaimalai flying frog and other frog species gradually began to multiply around these ponds.

The Wildlife Trust of India, along with environmentalists, has been urging plantation owners and the forest department in Munnar to help conserve the Anaimalai flying frog and other amphibian species that are in the IUCN’s Red List. The Kadalar swamp frog, Deccan night frog, and Resplendent shrub frog are ‘endangered’, while the meowing night frog, which meows like a cat (!), is ‘near threatened’.

“The Wildlife Trust of India embarked on the Amphibian Recovery Project in the Munnar landscape. Funding from Synchronicity Earth and formal agreements with the Kerala Forest and Wildlife Department and the Kanan Devan hills plantations have strengthened our efforts. The next global assessment of frogs is due in 2029, and our target is to improve the situation before then,” says Dr S Harikrishnan, Project Lead, Wildlife Trust of India. He adds that frogs’ survival is threatened by climate change, habitat loss and pollution.

Most conservation initiatives are directed at charismatic megafauna such as tigers and elephants, with little focus on amphibians. Even though 14 amphibian species are threatened in the Munnar landscape, no local or national legislation exists to protect them,.

Frogs play a vital role in the food chain as they feed on pests, and become food for snakes, birds, and humans. They also serve as important climate change biomarkers, as minor temperature or moisture changes can affect their numbers.

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