SAVING THE FROG

A new awareness campaign hopes to get an illicit delicacy—frog's legs—off Goa's restaurant menus

- Dhaval S. Kulkarni

IN 2020, GOA'S REPUBLIC DAY tableau on Rajpath had a giant green frog strumming a guitar. Back home, though, they often land on a plate. 'Jumping Chicken', they call it, for the benefit of meat lovers indulging in it on the sly.

Up the chain from restaurants that serve it are poachers who track frogs when they surface during the rains, their breeding season. The most hunted species are the Indian Bullfrog and the Jerdon's Bullfrog. Both have fleshy hindlegs, the part that's curried or fried.