Forest officers and wildlife fans have been shocked to come upon an enormous tortoise that was seen roaming alongside a street inside a colony within the satellite tv for pc city of Hingna close to Nagpur.
The feminine tortoise weighing over 22 kg was about 83 cm lengthy and 51 cm huge. It was seen by native journalist Gajanan Dhakulkar round midnight on Tuesday. The forest division workforce led by Range Forest Officer Ashish Ninave reached the spot and took the turtle in its possession. It was later taken to the transit therapy division for medical examination by veterinarians and was discovered to be in good well being.
Kundan Het, member of the State Board for Wildlife, mentioned, “The turtle belongs to a species known as Liths softshell turtle and is often present in South India. There isn’t any report of this turtle wherever in central India, so the invention of this turtle is being taken very critically.
“We were told that someone had brought in a sand truck adjacent to the Vena river in the colony where the tortoise was found. We’re not ruling out the possibility of turtles coming in with sand. Since it is a female, it may have laid eggs in the sand and was taken out along with the sand by the JCB. Tomorrow, we will check the sand for eggs, if any,” he mentioned.
“This particular species of tortoise is endemic to peninsular India and is extremely critically endangered, which makes the turtle discovery in Nagpur very interesting,” mentioned Abhijit Das, a tortoise skilled from the Wildlife Institute of India.
Das additional mentioned, “West Maharashtra, parts of Odisha have records of this species and Madhya Pradesh has only one turtle record… That is why this discovery is very important and the conservation efforts should be focused on the amphibians.” calls for.”
RFO Ninawe mentioned, “We will keep the animal under observation for a day or two to confirm that the animal is fine and does not have any internal health problems. After confirming its fitness, we will release it at a suitable place.”
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
