Researcher checks 3,000 frogs in Western Ghats to track deadly fungus threat

When Keerthi Krutha’s mother asked her to return home for festivals, the wildlife researcher often had a different answer. “Amma, I am already home. The forest is my home,” she told her. For Krutha, the forests of the Western Ghats became a workplace where she spent nights searching for frogs, collecting samples and recording observations. She walked through rain-soaked forests, crossed slippery rocks and streams, and dealt with leeches and unpredictable weather to investigate a fungus that has caused devastating losses among amphibians in other parts of the world.Over several years, Krutha surveyed 49 protected areas and 19 other landscapes in the Western Ghats, documenting more than 3,000 amphibians, according to a report by The Better India.