It is mainly reddish-brown in color, with a pale patch on the snout, lighter undersides, and dark brown horizontal lines on the limbs.

It is endemic to the Western Ghats of India, where it is known from the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala and Meghamalai Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu, although its range is likely larger than currently known.

Nyctibatrachus manalari was described in 2017 by the herpetologist Sonali Garg and her colleagues based on an adult male specimen collected from the Periyar Tiger Reserve in southeastern Kerala, India in 2016.

The specific name manalari refers to Upper Manalar in the Periyar Tiger Reserve, where the specimens used to describe the species were collected.

[2] N. manalari can be distinguished from its congeners by a combination of its small snout–vent length; the absence of webbed feet; the absence of noticeable wrinkling on the skin of the upperside; weakly developed glandular folds on the upper sides, separated by scattered granular projections; the presence of the dorso-terminal groove on the third finger and fourth toe; a single tubercle on the palm; the thigh and lower leg being shorter than the foot and nearly equal in length to each other; and its reddish-brown uppersides.

[2] N. manalari is endemic to the Western Ghats of India, where it is known from the Periyar Tiger Reserve in Kerala and Meghamalai Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu.

[2][5] Individuals from Kerala were found concealed in undergrowth near a rocky region in a patch of primary evergreen forest at elevations of 1,544–1,584 m (5,066–5,197 ft).