A visitor who wants to know what lives in Rajaji's leaf litter and riverbanks is usually offered a photograph with a common name attached, or a list with no date on it. This page offers neither. It reads one official publication — the Zoological Survey of India's Fauna of Conservation Area 5: Rajaji National Park of March 1995 — and reports what its four herpetology chapters print: page ranges, species counts, family counts, and the boundaries in force when the work was done. Every figure below is a 1995 publication figure resting on collections made earlier.
Sources checked on 3 November 2026: the Zoological Survey of India's own copy of Fauna of Conservation Area 5: Rajaji National Park (March 1995), read as a scanned PDF; and this site's own published pages, linked at the foot of this article.
Four chapters, 59 species
Reptiles and amphibians are spread across four chapters, each with its own printed page range and its own count:
- Amphibia, pages 55 to 75 — 10 species
- Turtles and Tortoises, pages 77 to 85 — 12 species
- Lizards, pages 87 to 89 — 9 species
- Snakes, pages 91 to 113 — 28 species
Set beside each other, those four printed chapter counts reach 59 herpetofaunal species. The addition is flagged because it is arithmetic rather than observation: no line in the book prints a combined herpetofaunal total, so the 59 is a reader's sum of four chapter figures from one publication — a description of how much ground the volume covers, carrying none of the authority of a count made today.
The amphibian chapter: 10 species, six genera, four families
The Amphibia chapter runs from page 55 to page 75 and records 10 species in six genera and four families, printed as Bufonidae, Microhylidae, Ranidae and Rhacophoridae. Those four family names are the whole of the taxonomic detail reproduced here: no species names are transcribed, because a list assembled from a scan by eye is worse than no list at all. Readers who need the names should open the volume and read pages 55 to 75 themselves.
What the family spread does give a reader is the shape of the record — the toad family, the narrow-mouthed frogs, the true frogs and the shrub frogs. But the chapter is an inventory of taxa curated at a regional station, and nothing in it is quoted here as ecology: no breeding site, no habitat preference, no activity season and no abundance is attributed to any of the four families, because none of those was read out of the source. Ten species is a count of names on a list, not a measure of how many animals there are.
Turtles and tortoises: 12 species
The turtles and tortoises chapter occupies pages 77 to 85 and records 12 species — the second-largest of the four counts. Shells and specimens persist in collections and can be re-examined decades later, which is why a chapter like this is worth reading as a dated record and never as a present tally. This page gives no current turtle or tortoise total for the park, names no species as present today, and says nothing about nesting or survival, because none of that was in the source.
The lizard chapter: 9 species, studies from 1986
Lizards occupy pages 87 to 89 — three pages, the tightest treatment of the four — and record 9 species across five families. Two details belong with that number: the studies behind the account date from 1986, and the material is placed at the Northern Regional Station of the Zoological Survey of India at Dehradun, where the specimens can be checked.
Both details change how the count reads. A 1995 publication built on work begun in 1986 describes an inventory assembled across the second half of the 1980s, so the nine species record that period, not the park as it stands. A named holding collection means the determinations are re-checkable — the opposite of an unsourced list. Nine species in five families also means coverage is broad but shallow: a family-level spread over a small species total. This page therefore works at family and count level only, attributing no species name, habitat preference or sighting likelihood to any of them.
The snake chapter: 28 species, sixteen added to twelve
The snakes chapter is the longest of the four, running from page 91 to page 113, and its 28 species is the largest herpetofaunal figure in the group. The chapter also records how the figure was reached: earlier work on the area had listed 12 species, and the chapter adds 16 to arrive at 28. That growth is growth of a list, not of a population — a checklist expands when someone surveys more ground, examines more material or revises identifications, and says nothing about whether snakes became commoner or rarer in the park over the same years.
The volume's own summary prints the same 28 snakes beside its other totals — 12 turtles and tortoises, 9 lizards, 10 toads and frogs — so here chapter and summary agree, which the book does not always provide. The full summary block, and the one place where the volume disagrees with itself, are set out in the companion butterfly article. Both treat the book's numbers as dated publication figures.
Why the date on the cover decides what the numbers mean
Three dates frame every figure on this page. The material was gathered over years before publication, with the lizard work running from 1986. The volume was published in March 1995. The final national park notification followed on 14 September 2013, and the tiger reserve was declared in 2015. The book therefore describes the park under an earlier boundary and an earlier district arrangement in Uttar Pradesh: its 59 species belong to the area as then defined, not to the notified area of today and not to the wider tiger reserve.
There is also no second visit anywhere in these four chapters: no repeat count, no comparison year, no monitoring series — one date and no trend. A reader who wants to know what has changed since 1995 needs a study made since 1995, and this page does not have one. Setting a 1995 total beside an undated website sentence would produce a comparison with no method behind it, so none appears here.
What this page will not claim
Four abstentions, stated so that silence is not read as an oversight. There is no current species list here; none was located as of 3 November 2026, and none is assembled from a 1995 scan. There is no abundance, density or population estimate — no individual counts, no encounter rates, no claim that any species is common or scarce. There is no threat status: no species is called endangered, protected, declining or stable, because no current assessment was read for this page. And there is no prediction of what a visitor will see, because a list of taxa is not a field sighting guide.
Where to read next
For the park's wider fauna, the animals list gathers mammals, birds and reptiles in one place; the wildlife guide covers what a visitor might encounter; and the habitats and flora guide describes the sal forest, riverine belts and grassland those animals live in. Three companions hold other chapters of the same volume: the butterfly record, the dragonfly and damselfly record and the fish record. Also in this set: the termites, centipedes, wasps and scorpions record, and the eco-sensitive zone status page for the legal question over the park's boundaries. Sources checked 3 November 2026.
Rajaji's 1995 ZSI reptile and amphibian record: questions answered
How many reptile and amphibian species does the 1995 ZSI volume record for Rajaji?
Four chapters carry the counts: Amphibia 10 species at pages 55 to 75, Turtles and Tortoises 12 species at pages 77 to 85, Lizards 9 species at pages 87 to 89, and Snakes 28 species at pages 91 to 113. Those four printed counts add to 59 herpetofaunal species across the four chapters. That addition is arithmetic on chapter totals from a March 1995 publication, not a survey result and not a figure for today.
Which amphibian families does the chapter name?
Four families, six genera and 10 species: Bufonidae, Microhylidae, Ranidae and Rhacophoridae, printed in the Amphibia chapter at pages 55 to 75 of the Zoological Survey of India's March 1995 volume. Those family names are the only taxonomic detail repeated here — no species list is transcribed, because none was read directly from the scan. Volume: https://zsi.gov.in/public/PDFVolumes/cas/005/index.pdf
What do the lizard and snake chapters report?
The lizard chapter at pages 87 to 89 gives 9 species in five families, says the studies behind it date from 1986, and states that the material is held at the Northern Regional Station of the Zoological Survey of India in Dehradun. The snake chapter at pages 91 to 113 gives 28 species and records how the list grew: earlier work had listed 12 species and the chapter adds 16. Growth of a list is growth of coverage, not of a population.
Is this a current census of Rajaji's reptiles?
No. It is a historical official inventory published in March 1995 from collections made before publication, and this page claims no present-day total, no abundance, no density and no threat status for any species. The volume also predates the final national park notification of 14 September 2013, so its counts describe the park as then defined. For the park's wider fauna, the animals list and the wildlife guide carry the visitor-facing picture.
Where can the volume and its other chapters be read?
At the Zoological Survey of India itself: https://zsi.gov.in/public/PDFVolumes/cas/005/index.pdf — Fauna of Conservation Area 5: Rajaji National Park, March 1995. Three companions cover other chapters of the same book: the butterfly record, the dragonfly and damselfly record and the fish record. A fourth page in this set takes the termites, centipedes, wasps and scorpions chapters, and the habitats and flora guide describes the forest those animals live in. Sources checked 3 November 2026.