{"id":216899,"date":"2022-12-02T21:54:40","date_gmt":"2022-12-02T16:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=216899"},"modified":"2022-12-03T08:37:26","modified_gmt":"2022-12-03T03:07:26","slug":"the-battle-to-bring-freshwater-turtles-back-from-the-brink","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-battle-to-bring-freshwater-turtles-back-from-the-brink\/","title":{"rendered":"The battle to bring freshwater turtles back from the brink"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source<\/strong>– The post is based on the article \u201cThe battle to bring freshwater turtles back from the brink\u201d <\/strong>published in The Hindu <\/strong>on 2nd December 2022<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Syllabus: <\/strong>GS3- Conservation<\/p>\n

News<\/strong>– The article explains the issues of turtle trafficking in India.<\/p>\n

Recently, West Bengal Police seized 270 kg of turtle calipee in Malda district.<\/p>\n

What is the status of turtles in India?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

India has 29 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises. The main difference between the two is that turtles are primarily aquatic whereas tortoises are terrestrial<\/strong> and spend more time on land. More than half of the turtle species are threatened and 11 are protected under Schedule I of The Wildlife Protection Act<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Recently, the Conference of the Parties<\/strong> adopted India\u2019s proposal to transfer two species of freshwater turtles found in the country. These are the red-crowned roofed turtle<\/strong> and the Leith\u2019s Softshell Turtle<\/strong> to Appendix I of CITES<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

What are issues associated with trafficking of turtles?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

According to the study, at least 111310 tortoises and freshwater turtles were trafficked from September 2009 to September 2019.<\/p>\n

They are being illegally traded<\/strong> as pets, for food, or to prepare medicines. India is reported to be one of the world’s major sources and consumers of turtles and tortoises.<\/p>\n

The TRAFFIC India report <\/strong>stated that an unknown proportion of illegal wildlife trade presumably goes undetected,<\/p>\n

People who live in the Barasat and Bongaon areas of West Bengal\u2019s North 24 Parganas district are responsible for more than 50% of the country\u2019s consumption of turtles.<\/p>\n

The pet market for trade is serviced mostly by air now. Agencies do not have the intelligence <\/strong>about them.<\/p>\n

What are some successful initiatives by government agencies to protect turtles from trafficking?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The WCCB has carried out a pan-India crackdown on turtle smuggling. Between December 2016 and January 2017, it launched \u2018Operation Save Kurma\u2019<\/strong> to prevent poaching, transportation and illegal trade of live turtles and tortoises.<\/p>\n

Two more such initiatives, called \u2018Operation Turtshield-I\u2019<\/strong> and \u2018Operation Turtshield-II\u2019 <\/strong>from 2019 to 2021 were taken up to tackle the illegal trade of live turtles.<\/p>\n

What are some success stories related to conservation of turtles?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Conservationists face the challenge of rehabilitating<\/strong> the animals rescued from the illegal trade back to their natural habitats. Organisations such as the Turtle Survival Alliance<\/strong> have assisted in the rehabilitation of over 30,000 rescued turtles over the past 10 years.<\/p>\n

The Turtle Survival Alliance, along with the Forest Departments of U.P. and M.P., has also been credited for conserving critically endangered red-crowned roofed turtles <\/strong>in the Chambal landscape. Attempts have also been made to conserve the critically endangered black softshell turtle<\/strong> in its natural habitat \u2014 temple ponds of Assam.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source– The post is based on the article \u201cThe battle to bring freshwater turtles back from the brink\u201d published in The Hindu on 2nd December 2022. Syllabus: GS3- Conservation News– The article explains the issues of turtle trafficking in India. Recently, West Bengal Police seized 270 kg of turtle calipee in Malda district. What is… Continue reading The battle to bring freshwater turtles back from the brink<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-216899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":1700810386,"cached_date":1704908235},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}