Critically endangered turtle rescued from drain in Mumbai

The wildlife rescuers took the freshwater turtle to the forest department for examination. Doctors said the turtle seemed healthy and without injury

Wildlife rescuers, along with the forest department, on Friday rescued a male freshwater turtle from a drainage channel in Mulund.

Though Leith’s softshell turtles (Nilssonia leithii) can weigh as much as a 100kg, the specimen rescued in a rare incident on Friday, clocked a weight of 13kg. (RAWW)

It was about eight to 10 years old and has been identified as a Leith’s softshell turtle (Nilssonia leithii) – a critically endangered species of freshwater turtle that is endemic to peninsular India. Though they can weigh as much as a 100kg, the specimen rescued in a rare incident on Friday, clocked a weight of 13kg.

“We were responding to a distress call by the Mulund fire station, which had been alerted to the presence of a large, stranded turtle in an open drain. We dispatched a rescue team which retrieved the reptile from the drain and took it to the forest department for examination,” said Pawan Sharma, founder of Resquink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW), a volunteer organisation based in Mulund which supports the forest department in responding to such wildlife sightings.

Dr Shailendra Singh, country programme director at Turtle Survival Alliance, who examined the turtle remotely over video from Lucknow, said it seemed healthy and without injury.

“These turtles are extremely rare and are declared as critically endangered as per the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) red list. I have advised the forest department to release it in a confined pond or lake and monitor the area regularly to see if it is adapting,” he said.

The species is also given the highest possible protection under the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Even within its known ranges, the turtle is apparently rare, including inside protected areas, which is suspected to be due to a past history of exploitation for the illegal wildlife trade. The species has disappeared from much of its former range, mainly due to siltation and drying up of rivers during the summer, and is suspected to have started dwindling in number since the 1970s.

This is the third time since 2015 that a Leith’s softshell turtle has been rescued from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR). In May 2017, a two-and-a-half-year-old female Leith’s softshell turtle, weighing 85kg, was rescued by forest officials and a wildlife rescue team in Thane. In 2015, a turtle of the same species had been rescued from a creek in Navi Mumbai.