Beneficia grant for Indian turtle conservation program

Posted on: Wednesday, June 18th, 2008

The Turtle Survival Alliance (TSA) is pleased to announce a $25,000 grant from the Beneficia Foundation to support their Chambal River-based Indian turtle conservation program. This is the second year that Beneficia has supported the India project. The Indian Turtle Conservation Program is a joint initiative spearheaded by the TSA in partnership with the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and the Zoological Society of San Diego. The flagship species for this program is the critically endangered Red-Crowned Roof Turtle, Batagur kachuga, and efforts are focused within the primary stronghold for that species, the Chambal National River Sanctuary (400 kilometers of river in northern India). The sanctuary contains additional threatened species, most notably the Gharial and Gangetic Dolphin.

In 2007, 1,500 B. kachuga hatchlings were produced for eventual release; other conservation actions included turtle surveys/population monitoring, headstarting of juveniles, and sanctuary-wide education and localized awareness programs. With less than 500 adult females remaining in the wild, there is an urgent need to investigate how incubation temperatures affect the sex of turtles produced in our hatcheries. This is especially important to maximize genetic diversity and to promote maximum population growth. This grant will provide funding for the construction of new hatcheries and headstart facilities.

Illegal hunting is the foremost threat to the sanctuary’s wildlife. Funds are now available to develop sustainable means to curtail these activities by providing alternative income sources for the area’s impoverished people, such as the creation of an e-commerce free trade system of artisan products (e.g., wood carvings and ethnic textiles). In addition, the turtle conservation center’s community outreach and education activities will be expanded to better serve the sanctuary’s estimated 30,000 school age children. Finally to expand this successful program to include the Red-Crowned Roof Turtle in other locales, and to incorporate conservation actions for other species of conservation concern, we now have funding to enlist the services of Dr. Peter Praschag. Peter is one of the world’s foremost authorities on Indian turtles, and consistently makes remarkable discoveries on each of his visits there. Our knowledge of some key Indian species has greatly increased in recent years due to Peter’s largely volunteer efforts. For four of the species targeted in the 2005 Conservation Action Plan for Endangered Freshwater Turtles of India - Batagur baska, Aspideretes nigricans, A. leithi, and Pangshura sylhetensis - conservation programs cannot be initiated without Dr. Praschag’s expertise and assistance.