'National Seminar on Frogs' on the occasion of Save the Frog Day-2011 was organized. Many thanks to all the participants, supporters and presenters. A summary report is available here.

Some pictures from seminar.

A news cover on national daily about the seminar:

Concerns of Save the Frog Day – Frogs are on peril

Not only the charismatic mammals and birds, human activities have threatened the survival of frogs as well. During the National Seminar on Frogs, organized on Friday, 29th April, on the occasion of 3rd Save the Frogs Day, experts emphasized that a component of ecosystem, frogs, are on peril.
Companions of Amphibians and Reptiles of Nepal (CARON) organized the seminar to celebrate the Save the Frogs Day for the first time in Nepal. In the programme, CARON has emphasized that due to government’s inability to prioritize the group for research and conservation, scientific studies on frogs are lacking. Prakash Chandra Aryal, the programme coordinator, said that frogs play an important role in food chains of wetlands and that these important ecosystems are being affected by habitat destruction.
Frogs are being seriously affected by pesticides and chemical fertilizers used in agriculture. Frogs are also being killed by electrocution that is being widely practiced in Nepal’s rivers and streams for fishing. Some ethnic groups around the country consume frogs (Paha) while others use them in traditional medicines. In some culture, frogs are also used in cultural frog marriage to worship rain god when there is no rain.
Save the Frogs, a US based not profit making organization said that because of least priority compared to the charismatic large animals, amphibians are on verge of extinction. In Nepal, in class 11 of higher secondary study, it is mandatory to dissect frogs in study of anatomy. This practice exploits more than 80,000s frogs a year. As India has banned the export of frogs from there and this enforced to collect frogs from their native habitats though national park and wildlife conservation policy bans the mobilization of frogs.
According to professor Karan Bahadur Shah of Tribhuvan University, 53 species of frogs has been reported from Nepal. His book ‘Herpetology of Nepal’ published in 2004,reported species of frog from as high as 5030m above sea level and and described 53 species of frogs from the country. A type of frog group called Paha includes about 20 species of frogs that are consumed by some ethnic groups in mountains of Nepal. Prof. Shah revealed that in India 216 species of frogs has been recorded while due to lack of enough study in Nepal, only 53 species has been reported so far.
A species found in low land of Nepal ‘Megha-Meghi’ (Hoplobatrachus tigerinus) has been enlisted in CITES appendix 2 while another species reported by an Indian researcher in 1998 Rana chitwanensis is endemic to Nepal.
More ambiguously, according to ‘Amphibia Web California’, an organization working in amphibians, there are 41 species of frogs in Nepal. And most of them are unknown to local people and there is no data about them. According to ‘Save the Frog’ frogs are in peril owing to habitat destruction or alteration, increasing human population, insecticides and chemical uses and climate change.

This is translation of news published in Nagarik national daily newspaper, page no. 3 on 1st May 2011. Web link http://www.nagariknews.com/society/nation/25991-2011-05-01-05-18-08.html