New frog species discovered in India's Western Ghats Published duration 20 June 2017

image caption The new species belongs to the Indian frog family, Fejervarya

An Indian researcher has discovered four new species of burrowing frogs.

Sonali Garg, a PhD student in Delhi University, found the new species after five years of extensive explorations in the Western Ghats - a biodiversity hotspot in southern India.

Fejervarya. The species belongs to the Indian frog group or genus

The study added that "the new finding will have a significant implication on the conservation status of these frogs".

"We need to be concerned about the existence of these newly discovered frogs and conduct further studies to reassess their conservation status," said Professor SD Biju, who supervised Ms Garg's study.

Ms Garg said "more extensive studies were required to scientifically identify and describe the Western Ghats frogs".

"These frogs are already facing extinction threats from various human activities," she said.

A number of new frog species have been discovered from the Western Ghats in the past decade, making it one of the leading biodiversity hotspots in the world.

A new tadpole that burrows through sand was discovered in 2016, and an extraordinary tree frog thought to have died out more than a century ago was also rediscovered in the same year.