Red Crowned Roofed Turtle

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

India has put forward a proposal to better protect a species of freshwater reptile called the red-crowned roofed turtle (Batagur kachuga) under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). 

The turtle, native to India and Bangladesh, is at a high risk of extinction.

• In the CITES COP19 agenda, countries have proposals to amend the appendices for wild animals, which include transferring hippopotamus, straw-headed bulbul, red-crowned roofed turtle and African elephant to Appendix I. 
• It also proposes to include requiem and hammerhead sharks in Appendix II. 

The Red Crowned Roofed Turtle

• Red Crowned Roofed Turtle is a species of freshwater turtle endemic to South Asia.
• The last known stronghold for this river turtle is on the Chambal River in central India, however, small isolated populations may still exist in the Ganges and Brahmaputra river basins. 
• IUCN Status: Critically Endangered
• Indian Wildlife (Protection) Act of 1972: Schedule I

Threats

• The list cites threats like habitat loss due to pollution and hydrological projects specific in the Gangal lowlands of northern India and Bangladesh. 
• Overharvesting the animal for illegal consumption and illegal international trade are other reasons for its extinction threat. 
• Over 11,000 tortoises and freshwater turtles have been seized in India from 2009-2019, found a study by TRAFFIC, a global NGO working on trade in wild animals and plants and their conservation.
• The poached animals were illegally traded year after year and identification were absent in 51.5 per cent of the cases.

About CITES

• It is an international agreement between governments.
• CITES regulates international trade in specimens of species of wild fauna and flora based on a system of permits and certificates issued under certain conditions.
• It covers export, re-export, import and landing from the high seas of live and dead
• animals and plants and their parts and derivatives.
• CITES has now 183 Parties. Not all members of the United Nations are Parties to the Convention.
• The CITES Secretariat is hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
• It was drafted as a result of a resolution adopted in 1963 at a meeting of members of IUCN (The World Conservation Union).
• The text of the Convention was finally agreed at a meeting of representatives of 80 countries in Washington, D.C, on 3 March 1973, and on 1 July 1975 CITES entered in force.
• It is legally binding on the Parties – in other words they have to implement the Convention.
• It does not take the place of national laws. Rather it provides a framework to be adopted by parties in its own domestic legislation to ensure that CITES is implemented at the national level.