India is a global biodiversity hotspot and home to 24 freshwater turtle, 5 tortoise and 5 marine turtle species spread across five turtle priority areas. With some of the rarest species found nowhere else on Earth, there is still a severe dearth of knowledge on distribution of several species and their ecology. Unfortunately, close to 70% of these species are threatened while some are facing the risk of extinction.. Common mass is estranged and unconcerned of their plight, only because they are uninformed about these beautiful shelled creatures. This initiative is aimed at increasing the knowledge and awareness on turtles and tortoises among the general public, and provide a platform for contributing a real time scientific data collection via reporting of turtle sightings, and aiding in nationwide rescue and triage.
Image credits:
Shailendra Singh
A consortium of common citizens, biologists, hobbyists, turtle lovers and organizations dedicated towards conserving turtles and tortoises of India and instrumental in “Keeping Common Species Common”.
Year of Initiation:
2018
Project Coordinator:
Shailendra Singh
E-mail Address:
Role in the project:
Founder and Supervisor
Institutional Affiliation:
Turtle Survival Alliance India
Taxa:
Freshwater Turtle and Tortoises
Status:
Active
No. of participants:
Above 1000
Geographical spread of project:
ALL INDIA
Further information:
Our project covers the entire India, though with special focus on Turtle Priority areas recognised in 2011
Run through an umbrella platform:
Other
Other umbrella platform:
KURMA- Tracking Indian Turtles
Purpose of the project:
To instate a common platform that would address the dearth of awareness about turtles and ecological roles in general public and relevant key stakeholders. Engaging the public will help in building a broad-based support for protection of several endangered turtle species and strengthen a network of citizens as an effective on-ground units to report threats to turtles and tortoises of India.
Coordinating institution/organisation:
Turtle Survival Alliance India
Location of the coordinating institution/organisation(s):
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Data availability:
Available upon request, without a fee
Participation in language other than English:
No
Appropriate age groups of participants:
All age groups
Citizen participation through:
Website, Mobile application
Why should people participate:
With only a handful of conservation organization or researchers in India working on turtles, people participation will help pace up the conservation actions needed to keep up with exponentially increasing threats, and at the same time contribute significant knowledge to science and even influence the policy level interventions.
Prior knowledge or expertise required:
No prior knowledge