Purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis), Kerala.
Image: Unnikrishnan Nair P.K., CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
At a glance
- IUCN category
- EN · Endangered
- Animal group
- Reptiles & Amphibians
- Population trend
- Decreasing
- FaunaHub record reviewed
- Checked against IUCN
- Sources disagree — IUCN's 2022 global assessment says Near ThreatenedChecked 2026-10-09 against IUCN's Red List export published 2026-07-28
Conservation overview
The purple frog is a bloated, burrowing frog with a pointed snout that spends almost its whole life underground. It is assessed as Endangered.
It surfaces only briefly to breed during the monsoon and represents an ancient, distinct lineage.
Range & habitat
The Western Ghats of India.
Major threats
Threats below are drawn from the authoritative sources listed on this page. For the current, complete assessment, see the IUCN Red List.
- Habitat loss to agriculture
- Dams and land-use change
- Collection of tadpoles in places
Why it matters
A 'living fossil' frog of the Western Ghats, the purple frog highlights the unique, ancient amphibian life of one of the world's biodiversity hotspots.
Gallery
Purple frog (Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis).
Image: Original uploader was Karthickbala at ta.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources
Sources for Purple Frog
- IUCN Red List — look up Purple Frog (authoritative status)
- AmphibiaWeb (UC Berkeley)