Important Facts For Prelims
Indian Star Tortoise
- 19 Jan 2021
- 2 min read
Why in News
Recently, Indian star tortoises were seized while being smuggled from Andhra Pradesh to Odisha.
Key points
- Habitat:
- Indian star tortoise is found across the Indian sub-continent, more specifically, in the Central and Southern parts of India, in West Pakistan and in Sri Lanka.
- Protection Status:
- Wild Life Protection Act 1972: Schedule IV
- Schedule IV: This list is for species that are not endangered. It includes protected species but the penalty for any violation is less compared to the Schedules I and II.
- Convention on International Trade inSpecies (CITES): Appendix I
- IUCN Status: Vulnerable
- Wild Life Protection Act 1972: Schedule IV
- Threat: The species faces two threats- loss of habitat to agriculture and illegal harvesting for the pet trade.
- According to the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, 90% of the trade of Star Tortoise occurs as part of the International pet market.
- If their exploitation had continued at a similar pace or had expanded, a decline of greater than 30% was predicted by 2025.
- Conservation Efforts:
- Recently India’s proposal to upgrade the protection status of Star Tortoise from Appendix II to Appendix I was approved by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
