For 30 years, a rare turtle species was missing from the Ganga. This summer, scientists, forest officers, and locals came together to help bring it back.
In April 2025, 20 red-crowned roofed turtles were released into the Ganga at the Haiderpur wetland in Uttar Pradesh, where the river still flows gently and clean.
These turtles had been raised at a conservation centre inside the Chambal sanctuary, their only surviving home in the wild, where fewer than 500 females remain.
Each turtle was chosen carefully — healthy, balanced in sex, and ready for the wild. They were brought to the Ganga with great care and constant monitoring.
To help track their journey, scientists fitted transmitters on their shells, so they could study their movements, behaviour, and how they adapt to the river.
The turtles were released in two groups — one in the Haiderpur wetland and the other directly into the main river — to understand where they feel safer and thrive better.
People from nearby villages, forest staff, school students and even saints who live by the river joined in to welcome the turtles back to their original home.
Many of these saints are now part of the conservation effort. Their voice carries weight, and their support has helped reduce illegal fishing and poaching.
Researchers are monitoring the turtles every day, tracking where they go, how they respond to the new environment, and what risks they might be facing.
This is India’s first telemetry-based study of this species in the Ganga. The data will help shape future plans to protect turtles, dolphins, and gharials too.
While turtles were being released in UP, something beautiful was happening on the banks of the Chambal River in Dholpur, Rajasthan.
Along the sandy edges of the river, hundreds of Batagur turtle eggs were collected and protected in hatcheries by the forest department and the TSA Foundation.
Once they hatched, over 3,200 baby turtles were released back into the Chambal—the same river their mothers had returned to for nesting.
Some of the hatchlings were tagged for future tracking, so that scientists can follow their growth and survival in their natural home.
This effort was just as personal as the one in UP — carried out with patience, care, and support from the sanctuary teams working on the ground.
The Chambal River is a vital ecosystem. It shelters turtles, gharials, and river dolphins, but threats like sand mining continue to endanger their survival.
Yet what these two efforts show is that with the right attention and community support, endangered species like these turtles can be given a real chance.
Climate change and pollution still pose big challenges, but involving people — students, farmers, saints — makes conservation work stronger and more rooted.
When hatchlings return to their rivers, when turtles slowly adapt to new waters, it tells us something simple: rivers can recover, and so can life within them.
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