Every monsoon season, in the misty hills of Darjeeling, in West Bengal, eastern India, the elusive Himalayan salamander emerges from beneath the forest floor.
The ancient amphibians (Tylototriton himalayanus) engage in a delicate dance, a mating ritual that lasts up to 90 minutes before they attach their eggs to semi-submerged vegetation, such as denseflower knotweed (Persicaria glabra). The survival of the next generation of salamanders is, however, increasingly at risk as their critical wetland habitats disappear, report contributors Subhrajit Sen and Soham Das for Mongabay.
According to Koushik Deuti of the Zoological Survey of India, the salamander’s future is tethered to small, shrinking water bodies, known locally as pokhris.
“Most of these small wetland areas have been converted due to excessive housing and tourism in the Darjeeling hills, and these wetlands have been drained and there is no water,” Deuti tells Mongabay. “So, this conservation of the Himalayan salamander is directly related to the conservation of these small wetlands.”
Beyond physical habitat loss, remaining ponds are contaminated by wastewater and detergents. Infrastructure also poses a direct physical threat: New roads frequently divide migration paths and salamanders are crushed by vehicles as they attempt to reach breeding sites. Nirmal Tamang, a resident of Namthing Pokhri, says locals have requested culverts to allow safe passage for the amphibians but none have been built so far.
India’s first salamander sanctuary, established in 1985, serves as a cautionary tale. Once a thriving habitat, officials built tourist infrastructure in the area which made it impossible for the salamanders to continue living there.
“Mistakenly, at that time they have cemented all this area,” Devesh Pandey, a divisional forest officer in Kurseong, Darjeeling, tells Mongabay. “Whenever there is a cementing effect, the hibernated salamander can’t come out … so all the salamander population has gone extinct from that area.”
Current assessments by Barkha Subba, a scientist with WWF-India, reveal a significant protection gap: Just 10% of salamander territory falls within officially protected areas. The remaining 90% sits on private land and tea estates, where conservation often competes with human plans and the development of new tourism infrastructure.
In response, the West Bengal Forest Department has started to restore habitat by clearing invasive weeds, digging new ponds and removing waste. There are also plans to formally protect three additional sites, Pokhritar, Namthing Pokhri and Panch Pokhri, as dedicated salamander sanctuaries this year.
Watch the full video by Subhrajit Sen and Soham Das here.
Banner image of a salamander in Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. Image courtesy of Subhrajit Sen/Mongabay.
Source:
news.mongabay.com