Last November, locals in Jalthal, Jhapa district captured an elongated tortoise while grazing cattle near Thuli River. Villagers thronged to see the creature which was once abundant in the forest here. Its yellowish-brown carapace with contrasting black blotches at the center of each scute created quite a spectacle for many of the villagers, who were witnessing the creature for the first time in their life.
When Biswas Kulung Rai, a member of the Diyalo Community Forest User Group (CFUG), heard the news, he hurried to the site to rescue it. He explained the rarity and ecological importance of the tortoise to the villagers and requested them to let it go. “They might have eaten it or someone might have kept it as a pet. It definitely would have not been released back into its natural habitat,” he recalled.
Rai’s timely intervention saved the life of the tortoise. It shows the effectiveness of community-led conservation effort. Rai, also a resident of Jalthal, is a conservationist, who cares about flora and fauna of his surroundings.
Elongated tortoises are primarily found in South and Southeast Asia. There are three major threats causing population decline of elongated tortoises: habitat degradation, commercial exploitation, and illegal hunting for consumption and medicinal use.
According to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list, global population of the elongated tortoise has declined by over 80% in the past 90 years throughout its distribution range. This prompted the IUCN to list the species as “Critically Endangered” in 2019.
Elongated tortoises are medium-sized, with shell lengths between 25 to 36 centimeters. Their body shape resembles an elongated oval, giving rise to its specific epithet “elongata.” They play a crucial role in maintaining the health of grassland and forest ecosystems by consuming dead and decaying organic matter. They also serve as essential seed dispersal agents for certain plants in terrestrial environments.
Craig Stanford, a leading expert on tortoises and turtles and Chair of the IUCN SSC Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group, says, “The elongated tortoise is in steep decline across its wide range of habitat. Loss of their habitat plus collection for meat and the international pet trade has decimated the species.”
Once a part of the expansive Charkoshe Forest, commonly referred to as “Charkoshe Jhadi”, Jalthal is now a fragmented 62.6 km2 forest island due to rampant deforestation and human encroachment.
These tortoises face additional threats, such as forest fires, the illegal pet trade, collection for religious purposes, and the use of their carapace for decorative masks, both domestically as well as internationally. Due to the significant level of trade, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) listed the species in Appendix II, in 1977, restricting its international trade.
Sancha Hang Limbu, the president of Bishal CFUG, one of the 22 CFUGs in Jalthal, recounts, “The elongated tortoises were abundant in Jalthal Forest 10/15 years earlier, but now we rarely see them. There is too much hunting and egg collection, which can lead to their local extinction,” he says adding, “Opportunistic collection and forest fires are other main threats for elongated tortoises.”
Limbu argues that many locals are dependent on the forest in many respects. When locals, mostly women and children, encounter the tortoises inside the forest while collecting firewood, vegetables, and fodder, they bring them home, without knowing their ecological importance.
According to Asmit Subba, who has studied elongated tortoises in Jalthal, the turtle habitats are shrinking due to agricultural and settlement expansion while the forest is severely invaded by invasive plant species, particularly Mikania micrantha, which displaces native plants, directly impacting the overall feeding ecology and habitat preferences.
Ethnomedical practices among the indigenous communities of Jalthal also contribute to their decline, as they use tortoise meat and their carapaces as medicine for humans and livestock. The lack of health care programs for livestock and marginalized indigenous communities aggravates this situation. No scientific study has proven that tortoises or their body parts have medical benefits.
Subba adds, “Due to a lack of awareness among the community people about the elongated tortoise, illegal hunting and egg collection by indigenous communities for meat and medicine are common in the area. We can fuel conservation of elongated tortoises by training CFUG members to conduct regular awareness programs locally.”
Besides, community and school awareness programs, capacity-building training for locals and CFUG members could aid conservation effort. Effective law enforcement and international collaboration, as well as cooperation between communities and stakeholders are crucial for initiating community-driven conservation efforts for sustainable conservation practices to protect elongated tortoises in Nepal.
Limbu is a research assistant at the Nature Conservation and Study Centre, and a commission member of IUCN SSC, Tortoise and Freshwater Turtle Specialist Group.
