TSA Receives DWCF Award

Posted on: Monday, June 9th, 2008

The DWCF recently announced a $17,900 grant to the Turtle Survival Alliance for their Indian Turtle Conservation Program. TSA’s India program is a joint initiative spearheaded by the TSA in partnership with the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust/Center for Herpetology (MCBT/CFH) and the Zoological Society of San Diego’s Conservation and Research for Endangered Speciesí (CRES) center. The flagship species for this program is the critically endangered red crowned roof turtle, Batagur (Kachuga) kachuga. With less than 500 adult females remaining in the wild, there is an urgent need to implement conservation measures to prevent its extinction. Efforts are focused within the National Chambal River Sanctuary (NCRS), a 400-kilometer tributary of the Ganges River drainage and the last stronghold for the red crowned roof turtle. Current conservation measures for the red crowned roof turtle include protection of field-collected nests from predators at in situ and ex situ hatcheries. A portion of the hatchlings are retained at two modest nurseries until they reach a size that will improve their chances of survival when released into the wild - a program referred to as headstarting.

Written by Brian Horne (CRES) and TSA India Program Coordinator Shailendra Singh, this grant provides funding for both a research and an education component. Research activities are aimed at determining TSD patterns to insure both sexes are produced at the hatcheries, gaining a better understanding of frequency and minimum size of reproduction, and monitoring population trends and survival by surveys and mark/recapture studies. The research component of this program will improve the chances of conserving the turtles, yet illegal fishing within the sanctuary must also be addressed. If turtles continue to drown in illegal nets, no amount of headstarting activities will prevent the extinction of the species. Conservation Village Meetings and local outreach activities to educate locals to the situation within the NCRS will be essential. Pilot alternative livelihood initiatives will try and find the most feasible economic options for reforming turtle poachers and illegal fishermen. A large-scale education awareness program will be launched for communities living within and on the border of the NCRS that will help garner greater support and participation in turtle nest protection, rearing, and headstarting. The humble education center at Garhaita will be expanded so that larger awareness meetings can be held and school groups better accommodated. Over 200 village schools are in close enough proximity to Garhaita to be serviced by the expanded education center.

Both Shai and Brian will be giving presentations on their work in India at the upcoming TSA conference in Tucson.