The forest department has rescued a turtle of the sundhi species that had been brought to Jiudhara bazar in Mongla for sale. It was later released into a pond in the Sundarbans.

The turtle was recovered on Wednesday (1 February) morning from Bajikarkhanda bazar in the upazila's Sundarban union, the report says.

Md Shahjahan, officer of the Jiudhara station of the Chandpai range in the Sundarbans East forest division, confirmed the matter to Jago News. He said a smuggler had brought a rare sundhi turtle to the market to sell. Acting on a tip-off, forest department staff raided the spot, and the smuggler left the turtle in a bag and fled into the crowd.

The rescued turtle is a rare freshwater species and weighs one kilogram, he said. Finding that the female turtle was ready to lay eggs, staff released it into the pond at the Jiudhara station office.

He added that another sundhi turtle had been rescued from the Somaddarkhali area of Jiudhara in late November. That one was also released into the Sundarbans at the time.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.