In news– India’s proposal for inclusion of Jeypore Hill Gecko in Appendix II of CITES adopted by the CoP19 of CITES meeting recently.
About Jeypore Hill Gecko (Cyrtodactylus jeyporensis)-
- This gecko,a lizard of the family Gekkonidae,is morphologically unique and enigmatic to Eastern Ghats.
- G Jeyporensis is unique in its dorsal scalation as well as phylogenetic position.
- All other Indian species are complexes, while G jeyporensis is a relict lineage found only in high elevations of the Eastern Ghats.
- The species was described in 1877 by then Lt Col Richard Henry Beddome of the Madras Presidency Army, from a single male specimen obtained from the woods on “Patinghe hill” in the Jeypore forests of present-day Odisha, at an altitude of 1,300 metres (4,200 ft).
- Until recently, it was considered as extinct in wild.
- A sub-adult male lizard was collected on 20 September 2010 in Koraput district, Odisha, by Ishan Agarwal and Aniruddha Datta-Roy of CES which was deposited in the collection of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
- A second specimen, an adult male, was recorded on 9 October 2011 from Galikonda, Visakhapatnam district, Andhra Pradesh extending its known distribution range.
Source: PIB
