How Nagaland’s ‘Tortoise Guardians’ Revived the Critically Endangered Asian Giant Tortoise

Seventy-two-year-old Namgaukum still recalls the rare thrill of his childhood in Nagaland’s Old Jalukie village, where he once rode an Asian giant tortoise (Manouria emys phayrei) through the forest. To the five-year-old Namgaukum, the tortoise’s nearly two-foot-long carapace looked like a greyish-brown boulder rising above the leaf litter. “I would sit on it in the jungle, and after some time suddenly sense stirrings below,” he recalls. First a dark-brown head would cautiously emerge, followed by a thick, muscular neck and sturdy, scaly legs pressing into the forest floor. “Then we would slowly amble forward, its beak nibbling grass and tender shoots,” he laughs, reminiscing about the childhood adventure.

Namgaukum remembers the tortoises were once abundant in the forests near his village. But by the time he was 13 or 14, they had nearly vanished. Six decades later, the species is making a comeback—thanks to a community-led conservation effort.

Tortoise Guardians Lead the Revival

In August of last year, six captive-bred juvenile Asian giant tortoises, each 5–6 years old, were reintroduced into the Old Jalukie Community Reserve, a community-owned and managed protected area in Nagaland’s Peren district. The reintroduction marked a significant shift from traditional state-run conservation models to a community stewardship approach.

“They are like our children now,” says 22-year-old Haileulungbe, a proud member of the Zeliang tribe and one of the “Tortoise Guardians” leading the revival. His sentiment is shared by other youths and community members who have embraced the species’ return to the wild.

From Pets and Meat to Conservation Champions

The initiative began in 2018 under the India Turtle Conservation Programme (ITCP), implemented by the Nagaland Forest Department in collaboration with the Turtle Survival Alliance Foundation India. The program started with just 13 wild-origin individuals—seven females and six males—recovered from tribal households, where they were kept as pets, and from local markets, where they were sold for meat.

Today, the Nagaland Zoological Park hosts the world’s largest assurance colony of Asian giant tortoises, with 114 individuals. “The program reached its turning point when some villagers voluntarily donated tortoises they had kept as pets for captive breeding,” says Shailendra Singh, director of the Turtle Survival Alliance Foundation India. “The community that once exploited them is now sensitized to restore and nurture the species back in the wild from the brink.”

Measuring Success: Healthy Tortoises in the Wild

Seven to eight months after their release, all radio-tagged tortoises are reported to be healthy and surviving. Initially, the tortoises were kept within a 10,000-square-foot bamboo enclosure in the Community Reserve for acclimatization before being released into the wild on February 10.

“The program aims to rewild the growing number of captive-bred individuals and save them from extinction through community stewardship.”
— Shailendra Singh, Director, Turtle Survival Alliance Foundation India