16 Star Tortoises Found Dead In Srikakulam Temple
The devotees were enraged when they found seven burnt and carcasses of nine other tortoises thrown behind the temple executive officer premises on Monday.
Visakhapatnam: Sixteen star tortoises were found dead on the premises of a ninth century temple that houses Lord Vishnu in his Kurma (tortoise) avatar and is one of its kind in the world, in Srikakulam district on Sunday.
The devotees were enraged when they found seven burnt and carcasses of nine other tortoises thrown behind the temple executive officer premises on Monday. The temple management is rearing 180 tortoises.
District forest officer S. Venkatesh, who visited the temple along with animal husbandry officials on Monday, told this correspondent that the tortoises were dying over a period and there were no fresh deaths. The veterinary doctors could not perform the post-mortem as only shell was remaining and there was no presence of viscera. He added that it was difficult to ascertain the cause of death of these tortoises.
He said the temple has entrusted the conservation of these tortoises to an NGO Green Mercy Foundation based in Srikakulam.
Though there were persistent demands to hand over the tortoises to the forest department for conservation, the temple authorities were reluctant stating that the tortoises were linked to religious sentiments dating back to centuries.
The DFO said the temple authorities went to the High Court in 2011 to resist attempts of the forest department to take over conservation and got a favourable order.
He said the present issue was taken to the notice of chief wildlife warden who might suggest better conservation measures or ask the temple officials to hand them over to the forest department for better upkeep.
Pradeep Kumar Nath, founder president at Visakha Society for Protection and Care of Animals, said there was no proper security for the star tortoises in the temple. The temple authorities should hand them over to the forest department or Indira Gandhi Zoological Park, he added.
The star tortoises are endangered species and have been listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red list since 2016.