e-ISSN: 2582-5208 International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science Volume:02/Issue:09/September-2020 Impact Factor- 5.354 www.irjmets.com A REVIEW ON DIVERSITY THREATS AND ECOLOGICAL STATUS OF AMPHIBIANS OF GAYA, INDIA Nalinaksh Pankaj*1, Anindya Patnayak*2, Dr. Bhrigunath*3 *1,2Ph.D Research Scholar, Department of Zoology, Magadh University Bodhgaya, India. *3Associate Professor, Dept. Of Zoology, A.M College Gaya, India. Email—[email protected] ABSTRACT Present study on amphibian biodiversity was carried out at 4 different study sites viz- Barachatti, Mohonpur, Dumaria and Kothi in Gaya district Bihar. Amphibians are considered as intermediate form between fishes and reptiles. These makes important faunal group evolved in the Devonian period that has diversified and become dominant during carboniferous and Permian period. Amphibians also show a co-evolutionary relationship with diverse group of plants and animals whose habitats are interlinked. Amphibians play a vital role in ecosystem services and food chains. Frogs eat small insects so act as biological pest control. In this way amphibians help us to protect our crops. Anuran amphibians also act as bio indicator, food for birds, fish and monkeys as well for man, helps in medical advancement, and their larvae filter drinking water too. In this way amphibians are very useful and boon for mankind. These creatures are very pretty and key to our ecosystem but the populations of amphibians declining very rapidly due to human intervention, habitat destruction, and excessive use of pesticides and greatly due to unawareness of people about the importance of frogs and toads. Now a day’s biodiversity of frog facing a greater threat and their rate of extinction is very high. There is a need of conservation to save the amphibians as they are beautiful and pretty creatures and play very important role in the ecosystem services and food chain. Keywords:-- Biodiversity of amphibians, Bio-indicator, Biological control, Ecosystem services, Threats, Conservation. I. INTRODUCTION Gaya is the very important holy city of India. Peoples from all over the world come here for Pind-Dan of their ancestors in Pitripaksh month. Gaya district covers an area of 4976 km2 between longitude 84°40’ to 85°50’ towards East and latitude 24°50’ to 25°10’ towards North, surrounded by Jehanabad dist. the north, on the south by Chatra & Palamau dist. Jharkhand state , Nawada dist. in east and Aurangabad to west. This region of Bihar is very rich in floral and faunal diversity due to forest cover in the southern and Eastern part of this dist. comprises of forest cover and hilly area that supports a variety of flora and faunal group. Different parts of Gaya distt.mostly eastern and southern part (Barachatti,Mohanpur,Imamganj,Dumaria and Kothi) surrounding hilly areas and forests consists a mixed type of foliage comprising dry deciduous Sal mixed moist deciduous including dry deciduous scrubland and uneven patches of bamboo grooves (Champion&Seth,1968). it is home to a number of Amphibians/frogs. These areas of Gaya dist. viz- Barachatti, Mohanpur, Imamganj, Dumaria and Kothi provide a wide range of habitats for a number of different types of flora and fauna and very rich in biodiversity. These sites are rich in Herpetofauna (amphibians and reptiles) co- inhibiting with wide range of biodiversity of different other species. [ 1 ] It is very essential to protect and conserve these beautiful and pretty creatures and wide biodiversity so that there would maintain the ecological balance, food chain and uninterrupted ecosystem services that are essential for good health of human beings and sustainability of life on this mother earth.[2] Proper planning strategies for systematic www.irjmets.com @International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering, Technology and Science [152] e-ISSN: 2582-5208 International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science Volume:02/Issue:09/September-2020 Impact Factor- 5.354 www.irjmets.com biodiversity conservation is very essential for maintenance, improvement and sustainability of life and uninterrupted ecological functioning(foundation of ecological security)[3] This area of Gaya have highest ecological diversity as rich in flora and fauna. Many rivers forests and mountain range are the site of great biodiversity. GBWLS of Bodhgaya attract a lot of peoples due to its beautiful biodiversity. [4] so these biodiversity may become the good source of income for people live nearby these sites. Biodiversity are also the source of socio economic benefits may attract the eco-tourism organizations that may provide benefits to the residents live nearby. [5] Amphibians are experiencing great threat and hardship due to ecological disturbance and anthropogenic activities. Their numbers are declining at a very rapid rate due to diseases, habitat destruction and habitat loss, various chemicals fertilizers and bio pesticides used in the field. This is the alarming sign for humans and indication of poor environmental health.[6-8] Every creatures have right to live on this earth but human due to their selfishness disturb the other floral and faunal diversity of this earth that ultimately affect that human. Amphibian were also declining at a great rate is the indication of great environmental problems. It is the tool that indicates the health of fresh water and aquatic ecosystems globally. [9-10] Amphibians migrate from aquatic habitat to terrestrial habitat and vice versa. They also undergo aestivation and hibernation in the terrestrial environment during harsh conditions., so assessment of pond breeding amphibians are the basis of forecasting of the nutrient and energy flow cycles between terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems that are facing challenging of risk.[11] II. LITERATURE REVIEW Indo-Gangetic plains are the important site of biodiversity. Gaya is part of this biogeographic zones also rich in floral and faunal diversity. Many rivers like Falgu, Morhar-Sorhar, mountain range and rich tropical moist deciduous forest cover are the good site for the biodiversity . Different types of flora and fauna are found here that attract lots of peoples. In this area of Gaya distt. Barachatti,Mohanpur Dumaria and kothi there are 12 species of amphibians recorded so far belonging to 8 genera and 4 families from Gaya dist. of Bihar.[12-13] Due to arid environment and dry conditions most of the time a year Bihar has less no of amphibian species as compared to rest of the country like Western Ghats and northeastern states. In india total no of amphibian species found are 436 species (395 Anuran, 2 Salamander, and 39 Caecilians) as on 21.04.2020.[14] All the amphibian species recorded from different parts of Gaya distt Like belonging mainly to four cosmopolitan families Bufonidae, Dicroglossidae, Microhylidae and Rhacophoridae. Some of the species of amphibians are found in large numbers from this area.[15] Boulenger G A (1890) described amphibian fauna of British India. Venkateshwarlu &Murthy (1972) first of all described, the amphibian species of Bihar state, with few description and short notes on their character and habitat. Later on Sarkar A.K( 1991) described the amphibian species of Chhotanagpur (Jharkhand )it only provides taxonomical description of amphibians. Sarkar A.K et al. (2004) provide list of amphibians in the state fauna series of ZSI and provide taxonomical study of 14 species of amphibians from Bihar. But till date no any workers provide the amphibian diversity of Gaya dist. [16-18] Recent advancement in study about the amphibian taxonomy reaches upto molecular level. Now phylogenetic study of different species of living amphibians make the use of modern biochemical techniques linking morpho-anatomical characterization with DNA sequencing from mitrochondrial transcription etc.[19] . This advancement in study make the taxonomical study of different studies very easy and authentic and changed the previous concept of taxonomic categories that was based on morphological character differences between different taxa. www.irjmets.com @International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering, Technology and Science [153] e-ISSN: 2582-5208 International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science Volume:02/Issue:09/September-2020 Impact Factor- 5.354 www.irjmets.com III. CHECKLIST OF AMPHIBIANS IDENTIFIED IN GAYA DIST. (BIHAR) Following are checklist of amphibians identified in Gaya dist. (Bihar) that provide the review about the amphibian diversity of Gaya dist. Family Bufonidae (Gray, 1825) Genus Duttaphrynus (Frost, 2006) Duttaphrynus melanostictus (Schneider, 1799) Duttaphrynus stomaticus (Lutken 1864) Family Dicroglossidae (Anderson, 1871) Genus Euphlyctis (Fitzinger, 1843) Euphlyctis cyanophlyctis (Schneider, 1799) Genus Frejerverya (Bolkay, 1915) Frejerverya limnocharis (Gravenhorst, 1829) Genus Hoplobatrachus (Peters, 1863) Hoplobatrachus tigerinus (Daudin, 1803) Hoplobatrachus crassus (Hoffman, 1932) Genus Sphaerotheca (Gunther, 1859). Sphaerotheca berviceps (Schneider, 1799) Sphaerotheca rolandae (Dubois, 1983) Sphaerotheca Magadha (Prasad, Dinesh, Das, 2019) Family Microhylidae (Gunther, 1858) Genus Microhyla (Tschudi, 1838) Microhyla ornate (Dumeril& Bibron, 1841) Microhyla rubra (Jerdon, 1854) Genus Uperedon (Dumeril & Bibron, 1841) Uperedon systoma (Schneider, 1799) Family Rhacophoridae (Hoffman, 1932) Genus Polypedates (Tschudi, 1838) Polypedates maculatus (J.E Gray, 1830)