Herpetological diversity in the Central Eastern Ghats, Peninsular India

Herpetological diversity of the Eastern Ghats hill range in the Indian peninsula has been mostly overlooked and incompletely documented. We here present information on the amphibian and reptile diversity in the poorly-explored Central Eastern Ghats hill range in peninsular India. Based on a 1,000-hour bio-inventory study of the series of ranges between the Palar River (abutting Tamil Nadu) and the Krishna River (abutting Telangana) for about 10 months (300 field days), we present the following results. A total of 105 species of herpetofauna, consisting of 24 amphibian species, 35 lizard species, 42 snake species and 4 chelonian species were documented. Several new range extension records and new findings of rare species are discussed, substantiated by photo-vouchers, pre-existing museum specimens or both.