Spotted Pond Turtles

Spotted Pond Turtles

• Three persons engaged as mahouts (keepers and drivers of an elephant) in the Kaziranga National Park Assam, have been arrested for capturing and consuming spotted pond turtles, a rare species of a freshwater turtle.
• Spotted pond turtles are named for the yellow or white spots on their black heads, legs and tails.
• Range and Habitat: They are found in large, deep rivers in India, Assam, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
• In India, the species is distributed across the north, northeast and a few parts of central India

Conservation Status

• International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) : Endangered
• CITES : Appendix I

Kaziranga National Park

• It is in the State of Assam 
• It was declared as a National Park in 1974.
• It has been declared a tiger reserve since 2007.
• International Status:
• It was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.
• It is recognized as an Important Bird Area by Bird-Life International.

Practice Questions for Prelims

Consider the following statements about Spotted Pond Turtles:
1. They are Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list.
2. They are listed in Appendix I of CITES.

Which of the above given statements is/are correct?
a) 1 only
b) 2 only
c) Both 1 and 2
d) Neither 1 nor 2

Ans. c)

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