DECCAN HERALD (Bangalore, India) 06 January 09 The ugly toad has its many uses (Marianne de Nazareth)

Amphibians, and this scientists repeat, are not only the best bio-indicators of environmental pollution and climate change, but as predators they also play a large role in maintaining biological stability.

In the last dozen or so years, the world has become aware of a very disturbing phenomenon, that of the fall in plant and animal populations and the complete disappearance of numerous species, off the face of the earth. It has been halfway through the last century that man’s attitude to nature has not changed and the beginning of the twentieth century would start to see the extinction of vertebrate.

The world of mammals would be the first to go. From the beginning of the 19th century, hundreds of large birds and mammals apart from reptiles and amphibians have gone extinct and a further 1500 are threatened and need protection. It was when the gold toad (Bufo periglenes) in the Monteverde reserve in Costa Rica, Central America and the Australian frog (Reobatrachus silus) disappeared that the scientific community began to sit up and take notice. This fact was discussed at the first world congress of Herpetology held at Canterbury, England in 1989. At the same congress, the condition of amphibian and reptile populations and their protection was also discussed. It was stressed that amphibian extinction was a signal that we have reached a critical point in environmental degradation because amphibians which inhabit nearly all the eco systems all over the world belong to what are known as the bio-indicators or species who react to changes in the natural environment faster than other species.

Amphibians, and this scientists repeat, are not only the best bio-indicators of environmental pollution and climate change, but as predators they also play a large role in maintaining biological stability. The most important reason for the extinction of amphibians is the drying up of water bodies and the pollution of the countryside. Another reason which has caused the disappearance of the amphibians in the US and Australia is because of epidemics.

In several countries including India, edible frogs have been and are still in demand as a culinary delicacy. The result is huge populations are being decimated world wide. Consequently, the price of edible frogs have risen and have triggered off organised farms and breeding in closed frog farms based on foreign species. It was the French who are known to have started off this practice in their country in the early 16th century which spread to a number of other countries. The decimation of natural green frog populations in France created the need to import them from neighbouring countries. Catching of frogs in France was prohibited in 1977. The business of importing began shortly after the Second World War and the largest quantity of 46 tons was sent to France in 1964. In the following years the export of frogs was stopped due to their population being severely depleted.

France is the biggest importer of frog legs in the world. It imports between three to four thousand tons per year.

In 1962, France imported 63 tons of frozen frog legs, and 275 tons of live frogs. In 1978, it imported 3157 tons of legs and 792 tons of live frogs. In 1998, it went up further to 4113 tons of legs and 1005 tons of living frogs. This predatory exploitation of nature has led to an ecological catastrophe especially observed in India and Indonesia resulting in a total ban on catching frogs in these countries.
The ugly toad has its many uses

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