Endangered peacock turtles found dead in Cooch Behar water body

Kolkata: The carcasses of at least 10-12 peacock softshell turtles — which are under Schedule I of the country’s wildlife protection act and considered ‘endangered’ on the IUCN Red list — were found floating in Cooch Behar’s Sagardighi on Wednesday morning.
The water body, that is under the jurisdiction of the state fisheries department, was being cleaned when the carcasses were discovered.According to a forest department official, the number could be higher as carcasses were being spotted even in the late afternoon.
Divisional forest officer Sanjit Kumar Saha said: “According to reports received so far, the water body was being cleaned with cow dung and lime powder. We suspect this led to the death of the turtles.” He added: “Even though the water body is under the fisheries department, they should have informed us first before cleaning it since it houses these endangered turtles. We are awaiting the autopsy report. We will send the samples to ZSI and also seek a report from the fisheries department.”
Assistant director of the fisheries department, Sampad Majhi, said: “We have collected a water sample and sent it for testing. After the reports arrive, we will be able to comment on the exact reason behind the turtles’ deaths.”
S P Pandey of Society for Protecting Ophiofauna and Animal Rights said: “The water body has not been maintained for a long time. We suspect the use of cow dung resulted in fall of dissolved oxygen level in the water. The use of lime powder thereafter triggered a chemical reaction that possibly led to the deaths.”
“This is very concerning. The species involved is not only endangered globally but these pocket populations are the last of Bengal’s wilderness. The issue should be addressed at different levels to safeguard their future,” said herpetologist Anirban Chaudhuri.
Though no proper estimate has been done so far, Pandey said the water body may be home to 200 such turtles. In India, they are found in rivers and tributaries of Bengal, UP, Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Meghalaya and Nagaland.