THE TELEGRAPH TUESDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2019 10 YOUNG METRO TECE Little warriors join frog fight Around a hundred students from around eight schools attended the Save The Frogs World Summit, held in association with the WISH Foundation, at the MP Birla Planetarium Seminar Hall

emember the time when the monsoon nights were accom- R panied by the croaking of a frog on the wet streets? Those days have become a rarity now, pointing to the rapid decline in the number of frogs. Indeed, nearly a third of over 6,963 species of frogs and toads are threatened with extinction, requir- ing our immediate attention. Save The Frogs, a leading am- phibian conservation organisation which has been around for 10 years with a record of over 2,000 environ- Karthikeyan Vasudevan, mental educational events across 57 scientist at the CSIR Centre for countries, gave out this important Cellular and Molecular Biology, message at the Save The Frogs World shows the half-hour film, On The Summit, held for the first time in Brink. The film discussed how Calcutta. The event was held at the habitat destruction and the MP Birla Planetarium Seminar Hall, deadly amphibian disease, in association with the WISH founda- chytridiomycosis, are two of the tion, an NGO based out of Calcutta, Students of Rahara Nibedita Art School crafted several items, including cute and colourful paper frogs, main reasons behind the rapid working dedicatedly towards raising paintings and a painted unbrella as part of the programme to raise awareness on frogs extinction of the purple frog. environmental awareness. “I think interactions like these Around a hundred keen students where we share our practical from eight schools attended the sum- knowledge with the young mit. It started with a fun, interactive students, who are always and informative session where Kerry shielded from real-life problems, M. Kriger, a conservation biologist can help them a lot to open up and the founder and executive direc- their minds to new horizons. tor of Save The Frogs, with assis- In reality, by saving this species, tance from Sarbani Deb, secretary of we are trying to better WISH foundation, presented some in- understand how we can save teresting facts about frogs, such as ourselves because the same that amphibians, including frogs, threats that affect the need wet places to survive, the differ- amphibians affect us, too. If we ences between a frog and a toad and find a solution to their problems, between a newt and a salamander, we will benefit, too,” he said. how a tadpole transforms into a frog, and that toads have poison to protect themselves. gone extinct since 1979 were tation for the Giant Squeaker evolved 130 million years ago when whatever they had learnt in the Thereafter, the students were en- brought to light. Frogs, Save the Frogs Day celebrat- Pangea split into Laurasia in the seminar. gaged in a simple question- answer The possible reasons behind the ed in Washington DC, Vancouver, north and Gondwana in the south. The seminar ended with a brief round where they were asked some alarming rate of frog extinction, Santa Cruz, Tampa, Russia. purple frogs are now mostly found art session in which the students of fundamental questions about frogs. such as habitat destruction, pollu- The students were also encour- only in Kerala and Tamil Nadu and Rahara Nibedita Art School made They gave impressive answers and tion due to industrial waste, frogs aged to celebrate the last Saturday spend most of their life under- some stunning frog paintings and their curiosity to learn more about being eaten or taken out of wild as of April as Save The Frogs Day. ground. craftwork. frogs was clearly visible. pets and the possible solutions, in- The next speaker, Karthikeyan After this film, there was an in- Another highlight of the work- The students were also shown cluding the use of rechargeable Vasudevan, who is a scientist at the teresting call-recognition session shop was the frog-styled jewellery pictures of different types of frogs batteries, driving slow on rainy CSIR Centre for Cellular and Mole- in which the students were told to handcrafted by the marginal com- like the Pacific Chorus Frog nights, planting trees in the back- cular Biology, showed a half-hour identify the different amphibians munities of Dulagar, West Bengal, (Pseudacris regilla), Giant Squeaker yard of our homes, were discussed film titled On The Brink, featuring from their sounds. The students ea- which were up for sale outside the Frog (Arthroleptis krokosua), the with the bunch of frog enthusiasts. himself along with his two stu- gerly participated in it. seminar hall. The sale proceeds critically endangered Phyllobates Kriger also shared details of dents, wandering through the This was followed by a short went to the villagers. The objective terribilis, Parque Explora, Medellin, some inspiring initiatives taken by forests of the Anamalai Tiger Re- quiz on the whole session wherein was to remind the people of the Colombia and many others. The fact students of schools such as Sea serve in Tamil Nadu, in the West- students were split into three importance of frogs through the that around 2,000 amphibian species View Elementary School, Salton ern Ghats, in their quest to find the groups with names such as purple ornaments they wear. are threatened with extinction and City, CA, campaigns by the Soccer endangered purple frog (Nasikaba- frog, Indian bull frog, and tree frog that around 200 frog species have Team in Chiana, Ghana, tree plan- trachus sahyadrensis), which and were asked questions about CONTINUED ON PAGE 11 ▼ THE TELEGRAPH TUESDAY 26 FEBRUARY 2019 TECE YOUNG METRO 11

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Kerry Kriger posed with some beautiful creations made by the students of Rahara Nibedita Art School. These artwork were put on sale at the Silent Auction Kerry Kriger shared an inspiring story of some girls in California, the US, who sent letters to the governor of California and thereby helped lay the counter. The funds collected foundation of a law to save the California red-legged frog went for the development of Rahara Nibedita Art School. “I hope after attending this seminar, the students know much more about frogs than they did before and the importance of frogs for the ecosystem. Maybe some of these kids will go on to become professional environmental conservationists or just live in a more intelligent manner to have less impact on the planet. I am very happy with the kind of response we got from the students at the seminar,” he said.

We have been doing this workshop since 2008, as we are strong The students of Rahara Nibedita Art School painted and crafted items as supporters of Kerry Kriger played some soft tunes on a flute, thereby sharing one of his SaveThe Frogs’ many talents with the young ones. Hritambhara Sanyal (right in picture ideology and activities. below) and Priyanka Swain (left in picture below), Class V students of All the artwork created by St Augustine’s Day School and also learning art at Rahara Nibedita Art our students were made School, were among the many kids who posed with the paintings. out of waste. “If we do not save frogs, there will be more insects,” said Hritambhara, — Apurba Banerjee, Principal, who made a frog mask and a painting. Rahara Nibedita Art School

In India, there is very little awareness about frogs and how spectacular the amphibian species are in general. Workshops such as these give a detailed understanding of frogs, which students usually don’t get at school — Ashwika Kapur, wildlife filmmaker and photographer

We told the students to come with a I think we can The workshop was The seminar was So many species blank mind, involve more fun as well as very infor- are facing the as we wanted people in informative.The mative. My threat of to inform spreading concept of classmates extinction. Frogs them about awareness protecting frogs andIhave are just one of frogs from scratch. about the inspires me. I will already started them, which this Currently, our foundation danger facing try my best to discussing if we seminar focussed is working towards frogs by signing spread awareness about can set up a small pool on. I think small actions community sensitisation and petitions online, and going on this problem among my friends, as as we were told in the seminar, like these can make a huge impact environmental awareness to frog-watching tours like we the first step towards making the to maintain the natural habitat of in spreading awareness about the engage city people in the go on bird-watching tours. world a better place for frogs. frogs and help conserve them. current environmental issues. conservation of nature. — Aarshi Jain, IBDP Year 2, — Tanish Kejriwal, Class XI, The — Aryan Banerjee, Class XI, — Chandni Raghani — Sarbani Deb The Heritage School Heritage School The Heritage School IBDP Year 1, The Heritage School Secretary of WISH Foundation

Text by Madhurima Kar, pictures by Biswajit Kundu