Endangered
Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle
Chitra indica
Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle is a turtle in the family Trionychidae — Chitra indica, recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
The Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle, also known commonly as the small-headed softshell turtle and the Indo-Gangetic softshell turtle, is an endangered species of softshell turtle in the family Trionychidae. C. Indica, like other softshell turtles, uses it flexible and leathery shell to dig itself deep into sandy lake and river bottoms. Here, it patiently waits, with just its nose, mouth and eyes exposed, for potential prey to swim by.
Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle is very large with a straight-line carapace length of up to 1.1 m (3.6 ft).
Range and habitat
Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle is found in the Sutlej and Indus river basins of Pakistan, and Ganges, Godavari, Mahanadi and other rivers basins of India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Although widespread, it occurs in low densities, even within protected areas. It is threatened by hunting and habitat loss.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
It will also ambush and chase its prey, depending on availability, the time of year, and size of the prey.
In crisis
Despite this, and the turtle's status as an endangered species, it is not on the Nepali government's list of highly protected wildlife. Conservationists have claimed the Nepali government's actions do not go far enough in protecting the turtle from natural and anthropogenic threats, such as increased flooding due to the worsening of monsoons caused by climate change, damming of rivers, and gravel mining. Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle is often caught by humans, both as bycatch and for consumption, as turtle meat and eggs are considered a delicacy.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix II. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Indian narrow-headed softshell turtle, Wikidata item Q2078104. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
