Turtles and tortoises of Northeast India: saving them from extinction

Ahmed Mohammad Firoz

The Northeast region holds the highest turtle diversity in all of India. Recently, the local turtle species have become extremely rare, as many have been exploited for meat. Their status in the wild has not been thoroughly evaluated and baseline data on most of species are a decade old. Gathering current information on its distribution, viable population, and exploitation levels is crucial to develop effective conservation policies and measures. To this end, this project will survey protected and non protected sites in order to determine their distribution and pressure from exploitation, and identify viable population. It also attempts to educate local people about the ongoing conservation and management of turtles.