A pre-liminary report on the impact of road kills on the herpetofauna species in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract

To know the situation of road hits of amphibians and reptile species, a survey was conducted during the period 02 June 2013 to 25 May 2014. A total of 172 incidents of road kill of different species were noticed, representing 12 species of herpetofauna, including five amphibian species of the families Bufonidae, Dicroglossidae, Microhylidae and Rhacophoridae, and seven species of reptiles of the families Scincidae, Agamidae, Uropeltidae, Colubridae, Natricidae and Xenodermatidae. Reptiles were the most affected group (60%), of which more than 79.61% of the road kills were snakes. The most affected snake species were endemic Xylophis perroteti (64.63%).