Hunting spells doom for Ganga turtles

LOSING OUT: Dozens of freshwater turtles are killed ruthlessly by poachers in the Gangetic plains everyday.

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Keywords: freshwater turtles, ganga

Bulandshahar: People hunting for turtles is a common sight on the Gangetic plains of Uttar Pradesh. Freshwater turtles, which are on the endangered list, are hunted regularly here for their meat and their organs.

A CNN-IBN team chanced upon a wounded turtle in Bulandshahar earlier this week hours after it was caught using a specially designed fishhook net. The hunter was hoping that his catch would fetch him a hefty sum in the black market.

When confronted, Biru, the turtle hunter, was very forthcoming about his practice. But after some convincing, the man finally let the turtle free.

CNN-IBN: Do you hunt turtles?

Answer: No, when it gets caught in my net, I sometimes eat it.

CNN-IBN: Are there other people doing it?

Answer: I've seen poaching happen here. They catch 10-12 turtles at one go.

The Ganga is home to 11 species of endangered turtles. Some of them — like the licinus, the citra and the sparidus — breed in southern part of the Gangetic belt, between Garhmukteshwar and Bulandshahar.

But without any patrolling on the river to protect them, hundreds of these endangered creatures are hunted illegally every year for oil, meat and medicine. The local administration refuses to admit that poaching even exists.

"There's no poaching. No case of poaching has come to light in recent times," says Ashok Kumar, DFO of Buladshahar.

But the people who live in these parts know it better. "Earlier there used to be thousands of turtles on the river banks. Now, there are very few left," says Kailash Nishat, a local resident.

Effluents from industries set up close to the river and human encroachment on their breeding grounds have made things even worse for freshwater turtles.

The riverine areas where hundreds of turtles could be spotted once upon a time, have now been converted into cultivable land, systematically destroying these turtle breeding grounds.

The problem gets further compounded by the fact that almost everyday ruthless killing of the turtles continues yet the administration prefer to remain silent.