SAVING INDIAN TURTLES WITH FOREIGN ASSISTANCE

January 16, 2006

Posted on 16 Jan 2006 # IANS Post your comment

Foreign help to save Indian turtles

Basti (Uttar Pradesh): This is one foreign hand that is more than

welcome because it aims to save 14 turtle species in Uttar Pradesh

that are fast disappearing.

The Gairwa river in the Katarniaghat wildlife sanctuary in Bahraich

district and the Suheli river in the Dudhwa National Park in Lakhimpur

Kheri have been selected for turtle preservation in Uttar Pradesh.

An action plan has been drawn up, officials here said. The Turtle

Survival Alliance (TSA) of the United States has initiated the project

for a database that the International Union for Conservation of Nature

and Natural Resources (IUCN) is putting together on rare species

around the world.

US and Australian experts who visited the two parks said the maximum

species of turtles were found in Southeast Asia.

Over 90 percent of these species have been passing through a critical

stage. Twenty-nine of them were found in India and 14 in the two

sanctuaries of Uttar Pradesh. Some turtles are also found in Pilibhit

district in the state.

A similar conservation effort is under way along India's east coast

where the Olive Ridley variety of turtles migrates every year to lay

eggs on the beaches.

Many of these turtles die when they get trapped in the nets of

mechanised fishing boats that operate in the area despite being

banned. The turtle eggs are also at risk from predators.

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