Altogether 23 frog species found in the Northeast are “threatened with extinction” because of the threat posed by climate change and habitat loss, according to a new worldwide study published in the journal Nature on Wednesday.

Overall in India, scientists evaluated 426 species, of which 136 are in the threatened category, according to the study — Ongoing declines for the world’s amphibians in the face of emerging threats — carried out under Global Amphibian Assessment 2022.

Guwahati-based scientist and wildlife biologist Dr M. Firoz Ahmed, one of the contributing authors to the scientific publication, said the Northeast and the eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot is very rich in amphibian diversity.

As many as 147 amphibian species, out of 426 across India, were found in the region, including Sikkim, during the assessment.

The assessment found 23 species threatened with extinction in the Northeast of which seven are critically endangered and 10 are endangered. Further, 27 per cent of the species (40) are poorly known and lacks sufficient information to assess, indicating need of basic research on this least-studied groups of animals.

The study, which analysed two decades’ worth of data from around the world, has found that climate change is emerging as one of the biggest threats to frogs, salamanders, and caecilians.

Ahmed told The Telegraph on Thursday that all the 23 amphibian species threatened with extinction in the Northeast are frogs, citing climate change, habitat loss and disease as the main threat to the amphibian population.

There are around 135 frog species in the Northeast. “Of the 23 threatened frog species, the most are found in Meghalaya (nine) and the least in Sikkim (one). Arunachal has seven, Assam and Nagaland five each, Mizoram three and Manipur two threatened frog species. Tripura has none,” Ahmed said.

“Rise in temperature and abrupt rainfall due to climate change impacting their survival, breathing and habitat. Climate-induced less rain and heavy rain is emerging as a major threat to the amphibians,” he said.

The new global findings published in the reputed journal Nature should be a “wake-up call” for government agencies and conservationists to come up with “effective conservative” interventions, said Firoz, who is associated with Aaranyak, a Guwahati-headquartered leading research-oriented biodiversity conservation organisation.

Scientists and researchers from Aaranyak and several other institutions from India contributed to this Global Amphibian Assessment 2022. The last assessment was done in 2004.