Abstract
The population of Northern River Terrapin Batagur baska is ‘Critically Endangered’ and threatened with extinction. In India, the species was once known to occur in the mangroves of West Bengal and Odisha. The sub-population in Odisha is suspected to have been wiped out. The Sundarban Tiger Reserve and the Turtle Survival Alliance launched a modest conservation breeding program in 2012 to recover the species using a small number of adults as founders. Gravid adult females are kept in a dedicated breeding enclosure with minimal disturbance, eggs are incubated outdoor on an artificial nesting beach, and hatchlings are raised to develop assurance colonies for purposes of reintroduction in future. Currently, the project holds 12 adults and over 350 juveniles of various size classes. Three additional assurance colonies were developed for 70 sub-adults from 2012–13 batches, using rain-fed ponds within STR.
Highlights
Distribution and status of Batagur baska The Indian subcontinent has one of the richest assemblages of chelonians in the world, with 29 freshwater turtles (Mital et al 2019) and tortoises, of which all the members of the genus Batagur are seriously threatened
Batagur baska (Gray, 1830), commonly known as the Northern River Terrapin or Four-toed Terrapin, is a giant river turtle belonging to the family Geoemydidae within the order Testudines
The populations of river terrapins of Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia are listed as the Southern River Terrapin Batagur affinis, while the northern species from India to Myanmar has retained the name B. baska (Praschag et al 2008b, 2009; Weissenbacher et al 2015; Praschag & Singh 2019)
Summary
Distribution and status of Batagur baska The Indian subcontinent has one of the richest assemblages of chelonians in the world, with 29 freshwater turtles (Mital et al 2019) and tortoises, of which all the members of the genus Batagur are seriously threatened. We would like to thank Sri Piar Chand, additional principal chief conservator of forest (APCCF) and director, Sundarban Biosphere Reserve for providing support and facilities towards setting up of breeding facility. During the last recorded river survey in West Bengal and Odisha, while no evidence of a single population of B. baska was found from well-known habitats of this species in Odisha (Praschag et al 2008a), nesting females were confirmed to be surviving in the Indian Sundarbans of West Bengal.
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