Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis is built for digging: a squat body, short powerful limbs with hardened tubercles on the hind feet, a small head and a protrusible tongue used to lap termites from tunnels. It feeds underground through a narrow groove at the front of the mouth rather than by lunging at prey, and rarely comes to the surface.
Breeding is compressed into the onset of the south-west monsoon. Males call from just below the soil surface near seasonal streams, pairs form in the open for a short window, and eggs are laid in rock crevices in flowing water. The tadpoles are torrent specialists with sucker-like mouths that cling to wet rock faces.
The lineage matters more than the habits. Molecular work places Nasikabatrachus as the sister group of the Sooglossidae of the Seychelles, a split consistent with the breakup of Gondwana. The frog was formally described only in 2003, though it was known locally, and its restricted range in the Western Ghats makes habitat conversion a real pressure.