Reptiles of Tripura, Northeastern India: A Review of Diversity, Distribution, Taxonomic Advances, and Conservation Status

Tripura, India's smallest northeastern state (10,491 km² ), is part of the globally important Indo-Burma hotspot of biodiversity (Jenkins et al. 2013) and, in spite of its small size and having few, generally small hills ranging in altitude from 30-100m (Purkayastha et al. 2020) has a reptile fauna which seems disproportionately large to its size, largely due to its river networks and patches of semi-evergreen and moist-deciduous forest remaining within the state. This review summarizes the existing literature on reptile fauna of Tripura from the first account compiled for the state up to latest reported taxonomic records. Early state-wide surveys reported 38 reptile species from fresh fieldwork alone (18 snakes, 17 lizards and 3 turtles), with 26 taxa recognised as new state records at the time (Majumder et al. 2012), while a later, spatially restricted survey of the 0.86 km² Rowa Wildlife Sanctuary alone recorded 33 reptile species across nine families (Purkayastha et al. 2020) — a discrepancy that points to substantial historical undersampling of the state. Taxonomic work between 2015 and 2026 has meaningfully revised this picture: molecular-assisted description of two endemic bent-toed geckos, Cyrtodactylus tripuraensis (Agarwal et al. 2018) and the micro-endemic Cyrtodactylus jayadityai (Bohra et al. 2026), together with a run of new state or district records for snakes — Calotes emma (Majumder & Agarwala 2015), Boiga gocool (Nath et al. 2021), Ferania sieboldii (Deb et al. 2023), Trimeresurus salazar (Chowdhury et al. 2024), Sinomicrurus gorei and Pareas monticola (Deb et al. 2024a, b) — has added at least eight taxa to the known fauna within a single decade. Freshwater turtles, several of which are assessed by the IUCN as Endangered or Vulnerable and are listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, nonetheless face an open and largely unregulated meat trade in Agartala's urban markets. This review synthesizes taxonomic composition, the herpetofaunal significance of Tripura's protected areas (Sepahijala, Trishna, Gumti and Rowa Wildlife Sanctuaries), principal anthropogenic threats, and priority directions for future survey and conservation effort, and argues that Tripura remains among the least herpetologically surveyed states of northeastern India.