GUWAHATI, March 9 - A three-day sensitisation workshop for veterinarians on turtle conservation concluded in the auditorium of the Assam State Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden here on Thursday.
It was a joint initiative of the Assam Sate Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden, Turtle Survival Initiative, India and Help Earth and supported by Nature Learning Centre and Assam Science Technology and Environmental Council (ASTEC).
A total of 34 veterinarians and biologists attended the workshop representing three states � Assam, Manipur and Nagaland.
The workshop included various aspects of turtle biology such as management, disease and disorder treatment, modern techniques in turtle monitoring, etc.
Dr Shailendra Singh, Dr Gowri Mallapur and Dr Dhiwani Tandel from Turtle Survival Alliance, India and Dr Rajeev Basumatary from DR College, Golaghat were the resource persons.
DFO of Assam State Zoo Tejas Mariswamy inaugurated the workshop and later certificates were distributed among the participants by Dr Ranjit Barman from ASTEC.
Assam is the most species-rich State in India in terms of tortoise and freshwater turtle diversity, accounting to 20 species out of 28 species found in the country.
Unfortunately, little knowledge is available, when it comes to husbandry and treatment of reptiles � this also includes the inclusion of modern technology such as geo-tagging etc., � in the study of reptiles, especially turtles (70 per cent of turtles in Assam are threatened species).
