http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090202183805.htm

About SATHYABHAMA DAS BIJU

For fifteen years , S D Biju has been tirelessly working to document the amphibians of the Western Ghats, often using his personal earnings to fund his explorations. His mission: to document and propose conservation priorities through scientific methods. When he started his self-funded research project, he worked as a plant systematist in Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute in Kerala. Later, he quit this job to fully focus on frog research, and transferred to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel to obtain a PhD on amphibians of the Western Ghats. He is now leading a research group at the University of Delhi as an associate professor.
When he initiated his research in the Western Ghats, there was very little objective evidence for assessing conservation priorities of the amphibian fauna. Biju conducted over 1000 field visits throughout the Western Ghats and documented over 850 distinct populations of amphibians. Through directed field expeditions, he tracked and re-discovered rare species which were known only from century old descriptions.
After 15 years of exploration and research, Biju has gathered evidence for about 100 species new to science. The discovery and description of an entirely new frog family (Nasikabatrachidae, 'the purple frog'), sent ripples through the entire scientific community and also caught international attention of the popular press. This species was described as a 'the coelacanth of frogs' and 'a once in a century find'. Biju's prolific outputs brought a fresh fascination for amphibians among many Indian scientists and forest officials, and provided the 'push' needed to increase the pace of amphibian research in India. The borrowing purple frog also has important conservation implications. Inundation of large chunks of valley forests in the Western Ghats by dam projects could spell disaster to this ancient amphibian and many other endemic taxa. India now has Nasikabatrachus to use as a flagship to promote the conservation of important habitats in the region.