2018-01-01 Mon

Indraneil Das from Ballygunge has set the Guinness World Records to become the world's largest collector of postage stamps on amphibians. He has a doctoral degree in amphibian ecology at Oxford University. He is also a post-doc from Harvard and a herpetology professor at the Institute of Biodiversity and Environmental Conservation, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak.

He has collected 1,600 stamps featuring frogs in the last 45 years. He said that even though India is known for its biodiversity, it has only issued five stamps depicting frogs. Ecuador had issued 25 stamps depicting frogs. He explained that India is home to 410 out of 7,764 living species of amphibians found in the world. Even though England has three frog species, the number of stamps issued featuring amphibians by India and England is the same. Australia has issued 17 stamps on frogs. He showcased his collection of stamps in 450 panels at a philately exhibition in Kuching, Sarawak, to commemorate the Sarawak Biodiversity Evening on 4th October.

Das almost has all frog stamps issued by 195 countries. Some of these countries are non-existent today like Sarawak that is part of Malaysia and Rio Muni or Spanish Equatorial West Africa.