During the dry period of the year, it manages just as well by eating termites, wood lice and insects infesting rotting bamboo stumps. Its voracious appetite helps keep a check on the bugs in the area. But the newt, the only one of its kind in India , is itself threatened with extinction. Ritwik Dasgupta, professor at the department of zoology, Darjeeling Government College, lists numerous threats to the newt. An increasing number of cattle graze in its habitat.
Grazing loosens the soil, causing siltation in the water ponds.
The Indian salamander, exists only in stagnant water, finds its haunt destroyed. Then, freshwater fish introduced in the ponds eat the newt's eggs. If that isn't enough to annihilate the species, the area is drained for supply of water and agriculture. The newts scramble around, only to be crushed to death under the vehicles rushing by. For a species that is on the snack list of snakes, lizards, small animals, fish, diving birds, and even other hungry frogs that eat the eggs, it is truly besieged.