Preserving the endangered: Smuggled turtles seized in China finally reach home

The little reptiles are being observed and taken care of at the Dolphin Preservation Centre

SUKKUR:

More than 200 black-pond turtles have found their way back to their original home, Sukkur, where they will be released in the Indus River in two weeks.

The little reptiles reached Sukkur on Friday. As many as 220 hard-shell turtles were seized by the Customs authorities at Kashgar, which lies on the border of Pakistan and China. They were being smuggled into China when the ‘unusual luggage’ from Pakistan was intercepted and sent back home.

The endangered species are currently being monitored and taken care of at the Dolphin Preservation Centre situated at the Lab-e-Mehran Park. Some of them have even laid eggs, which have been buried in soft sand to help them hatch. They will be released into their natural habitat, which is the river, after 10 to 15 days of scrutiny.

The trade of these animals is banned all over the world as they are included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) list. Cites, an international agreement between governments, aims to ensure that international trade in animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

According to Dolphin Preservation Center in-charge and wildlife expert Mir Akhtar Hussain Talpur, a 17-member team from Pakistan, comprising wildlife officials, World Wide Fund officials, forest department officials and others from Sindh, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Gilgit-Baltistan, went to Kashgar to collect the turtles. He told The Express Tribune that the turtles were handed over to the Pakistani officials in an impressive ceremony held in Kashgar. “It was an unprecedented visit of Pakistani officials, who went to China to collect the smuggled turtles,” said Talpur. He added that hard-shell turtles are smuggled mostly to China, South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand and other countries.

Eight species of hard-shell turtles are found in the fresh waters of Sindh, and these turtles serve as ‘sanitation staff’ in the river as they eat the dead animals and help keep the water clean.

Normally, these turtles have a lifespan of around 20 years and most of the recovered turtles are between the ages of five and 18 years. “All the turtles are in good health,” said Talpur. “But since they have been deprived of their natural habitat for more than two months, they have been kept at the river bank under observation.”

“These turtles usually feed on dead meat and we are giving them minced meat,” he said. “Some of them have even laid eggs and we have buried them in soft sand to help them hatch.”

Published in The Express Tribune, August 24^th, 2014.