A Preliminary Checklist of Herpetofauna
Occurring in Rowa Wildlife Sanctuary,
Tripura, India
Jayaditya Purkayastha, Nazruddin Khan and Shubhadeep Roychoudhury
Abstract Rowa wildlife sanctuary is the smallest of the four wildlife sanctuaries of
Tripura comprising of an area of 0.860 km
2 . In this study we recorded 20 species of
amphibians representing 6 families and 33 species of reptiles representing 9 families.
One of the amphibian species namely Hoplobatrachus litoralis is a first record from
India. During the survey we encountered open turtle trade being conducted in the
markets of Agartala. The prime species involved in the flesh trade are Nilssonia
hurum and Lissemys punctata andersoni. Both the species are under Schedule I of
Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Keywords Rowa · Tripura · India · Herpetofauna · Reptiles · Amphibians
1 Introduction
The state of Tripura occupies a geographic area of 10,486 km
2 occupying about 0.31%
of India’s geographic area. According to Government assessment (OGD 2011), the
state had 7977 km
2 of forest cover (very dense forest: 109 km
2 , moderately dense
forest: 4686 km
2 , open forest: 3182 km
2 ). According to the data of state forest
department Tripura has 1545 species of plants, 90 species of mammals, 342 species
of birds (TFD 2016), but no data exists on the herpetofauna of the state. Being a
part of Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, with a forest type comprising of tropical
evergreen, semi evergreen, moist deciduous and a tropical savanna climate, 77.94
to 108.11 in average annual rainfall, with summer temperature ranging from 24 to
36 °C and winter 13 to 27 °C (TFD 2016), makes the state conducive for herpetofaunal
assemblage. Rowa Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in North Tripura and is by far the
smallest Wildlife Sanctuary of the state with an area of 0.860 km
2 . A recent study
on butterfly fauna of the sanctuary resulted in listing of 53 species belonging to
J. Purkayastha (B) · N. Khan
Help Earth, Guwahati, Assam 781007, India
e-mail: mail.jayaditya@gmail.com
S. Roychoudhury
Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics, Assam University, Silchar, India
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions
in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32463-6_10
225
Occurring in Rowa Wildlife Sanctuary,
Tripura, India
Jayaditya Purkayastha, Nazruddin Khan and Shubhadeep Roychoudhury
Abstract Rowa wildlife sanctuary is the smallest of the four wildlife sanctuaries of
Tripura comprising of an area of 0.860 km
2 . In this study we recorded 20 species of
amphibians representing 6 families and 33 species of reptiles representing 9 families.
One of the amphibian species namely Hoplobatrachus litoralis is a first record from
India. During the survey we encountered open turtle trade being conducted in the
markets of Agartala. The prime species involved in the flesh trade are Nilssonia
hurum and Lissemys punctata andersoni. Both the species are under Schedule I of
Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972.
Keywords Rowa · Tripura · India · Herpetofauna · Reptiles · Amphibians
1 Introduction
The state of Tripura occupies a geographic area of 10,486 km
2 occupying about 0.31%
of India’s geographic area. According to Government assessment (OGD 2011), the
state had 7977 km
2 of forest cover (very dense forest: 109 km
2 , moderately dense
forest: 4686 km
2 , open forest: 3182 km
2 ). According to the data of state forest
department Tripura has 1545 species of plants, 90 species of mammals, 342 species
of birds (TFD 2016), but no data exists on the herpetofauna of the state. Being a
part of Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, with a forest type comprising of tropical
evergreen, semi evergreen, moist deciduous and a tropical savanna climate, 77.94
to 108.11 in average annual rainfall, with summer temperature ranging from 24 to
36 °C and winter 13 to 27 °C (TFD 2016), makes the state conducive for herpetofaunal
assemblage. Rowa Wildlife Sanctuary is situated in North Tripura and is by far the
smallest Wildlife Sanctuary of the state with an area of 0.860 km
2 . A recent study
on butterfly fauna of the sanctuary resulted in listing of 53 species belonging to
J. Purkayastha (B) · N. Khan
Help Earth, Guwahati, Assam 781007, India
e-mail: mail.jayaditya@gmail.com
S. Roychoudhury
Department of Life Science and Bioinformatics, Assam University, Silchar, India
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Roy et al. (eds.), Socio-economic and Eco-biological Dimensions
in Resource use and Conservation, Environmental Science and Engineering,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32463-6_10
225