HIMALAYAN SALAMANDERS FACING EXTINCTION

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*http://www.hindu.com/2004/07/21/stories/2004072109200300.htm*

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*Salamanders facing extinction *

 

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KOLKATA,. Think twice before buying a Himalayan Salamander as a souvenir of

the hills for your loved ones in the plains.

 

You are actually adding to the extinction threats facing the rarest of

amphibians which had not undergone any evolution since the Jurassic Age.

 

The Salamanders are gradually vanishing from its Himalayan range habitats in

West Bengal's Darjeeling district and Sikkim. ``And from some places like

Mirrik and Sukhiapokri, these newts have already disappeared,'' said

Biswajit Roychowdhury, State Wildlife Board member and Secretary of ``Nature

Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS)''.

 

Mr Roychowdhury said Mirik, Jorpokri and Sukhiapokri in Darjeeling district

and parts of Sikkim used to be home for the Himalayan Salamander, already

under the Schedule one of the Wildlife Protection Act.

 

``But this only amphibian with a tail is now rarely found in some of its

original habitats, while from some other places it has completely

disappeared,'' he told UNI here.

 

Elaborating about the factors pushing the only newt found in India towards

extinction, he said that apart from the usual environment factors like water

pollution, concretisation, destruction of waterbodies and picnic revelry in

the areas, the sale of these Salamanders by locals to the tourists as

proving its major threat to the newts survival.

 

``The poor local people of Mirik, Sukhiapokri and Jorpokri have been selling

the Himalayan Salamanders to the tourists from the plains in bottles as

souvenirs,'' Mr Roychowdhury said, adding, ``Ironically, the tourists cannot

take the newts to the plains as these amphibians cannot survive below a

specific altitude. By the time the tourists reach Siliguri in north Bengal,

the Salamanders die.''

 

He said during a conservation project at Namthingpokri, it was found that

picnic revellers were also causing threats to the newts.

 

``The revellers light up bonfires during the picnics due to which the

hybernating Salamanders come up from within the ground and die,'' he said.

 

Since 1993, NEWS, in association with local participation, had

``successfully'' held the Salamander conservation project and released more

than 325 Salamanders into Namthingpokri after captive breeding.

 

NEWS field workers Partho Dey and Rajat Chakraborty said when they had taken

up the project in 1992, there were about 125 Salamanders in Namthinpokri

near Latpanchore. ``After one year of our project, we found about 550

Salamanders in the pokri (lake) spread across 2,400 sq ft of peripheral

area,'' they said.

 

UNI