Records of the Zoological Survey of India: Studies on Caecilians, Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Ichthyophiidae of North East India

Caecilians or limbless amphibians fall under the order Gymnophiona of the class amphibia. The mostly fossorial and tropical Ichthyophiidae and its sister Taxa Uraeotyphlidae are the only caecilian families restricted to Asia (Gower et al., 2002). They are believed to have been dispersed from India to South East Asia. The latter with a single genus is restricted to the Southern part of the Western Ghats. Ichthyophid taxonomy is not adequately established to enable a confident specific identification mostly because of their external similarity. The authors took a passionate interest to collect and study these animals from Northeast India, particularly Meghalaya and specifically from Garo Hills. Caecilians are popularly known as ‘Chikil’ to the people of Garo Hills.