Meet the Purple Frog

This remarkable frog lives almost its whole life underground in the lush hills of the Western Ghats in southern India. It emerges for just a couple of weeks each year—when the monsoon begins—to breed.

What makes it so special

  • It belongs to a frog family all its own, and its closest evolutionary relatives live on the Seychelles islands—telling a deep-time story of ancient continents drifting apart.

  • The body is adapted for a life underground: stout limbs, a pointed snout, and a plump body. It feeds primarily on underground termites—not hopping around like most frogs.

  • Its breeding behaviour is aligned with the monsoon: eggs are laid in shaded, rocky pools in stream beds, and tadpoles cling to rocks in fast-flowing water.

Why it matters

This frog is more than quirky—it’s a living window into evolutionary history and a symbol of the fragility of hidden ecosystems. Because it spends so much time underground and comes out so rarely, any change in its habitat, timing of the rains, or local land use can have an outsized impact.

Pressing threats

Habitat destruction (forest clearing for plantations and check-dams in streams), collection of tadpoles by nearby communities, and changing monsoon patterns all pose serious risks.