{"id":103678,"date":"2026-05-16T13:50:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T08:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=103678"},"modified":"2026-05-16T15:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T09:44:09","slug":"ganges-soft-shell-turtle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/ganges-soft-shell-turtle\/","title":{"rendered":"Ganges Soft-Shell Turtle"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Ganges Soft-Shell Turtle Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, India\u2019s first satellite-tagged Ganges soft-shell turtle was released in the 1,302 sq. km Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve in Assam.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Ganges Soft-Shell Turtle<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is one of the <\/span><b>largest freshwater turtle<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> species in the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is also known as <\/span><b>the Indian softshell turtles<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (Nilssonia gangetica)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Appearance<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>has carapace<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (upper shell), which is round to oval shaped, and <\/span><b>green in colour with a yellow border.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has a long neck and tube-like snouts help them to <\/span><b>extend their nose out of the water to breathe.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The compressed shell, on the other hand, streamlines them, thereby making them brilliant and fast swimmers.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Habitat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> These turtles inhabit <\/span><b>deep rivers, streams, canals, lakes and ponds<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, typically preferring areas with sandy or muddy bottoms.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They <\/span><b>thrive in turbid water<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and spend most of their time hidden under the sand.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Geographical Distribution:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> They are found in <\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/afghanistan\/\" target=\"_blank\">Afghanistan<\/a>, India, Bangladesh and Pakistan<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mainly found in Indus, Ganges, <\/span><b>Meghna, Brahmaputra, Yamuna, Narmada and Mahanandi<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> river basins.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Diet:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Indian softshell <\/span><b>turtles are omnivorous<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, feeding on fish, amphibians, mollusks, insects, carrion and aquatic plants.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These turtles breed from February to April.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Cultural Significance:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> These are often maintained in the <\/span><b>temple ponds of Orissa<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where they are considered sacred.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Threat:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Habitat alteration and destruction, Poaching and illegal trading for traditional medicines, expansion of agriculture, commercial exploitation.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Ganges Soft-Shell Turtle Conservation Status<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><b>IUCN Red List<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: Endangered<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Wildlife Protection Act, 1972:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Schedule I.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source:<\/b> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/assam\/indias-first-satellite-tagged-ganges-soft-shell-turtle-released-in-kaziranga\/article70982975.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">TH<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ganges Soft-shell Turtle is one of the largest freshwater turtle species in the world. Read more about Ganges Soft-shell Turtle, Appearance, Habitat, Conservation, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":103688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7566,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-103678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-ganges-soft-shell-turtle","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103740,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103678\/revisions\/103740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}