Tortoises and freshwater turtles under siege
TRAFFIC's latest analysis on illegal trade of tortoises and freshwater turtles in India over a 10-year period i.e. September 2009–September 2019, has found at least 1,11,312 tortoises and freshwater turtles reported in illegal wildlife trade, that comes to more than 11,000 individual animals every year since 2009. Considering that a significant proportion of illegal wildlife trade presumably goes undetected and the reported seizures are only a fraction of the actual trade, this is a very conservative estimate and the actual numbers would be much higher.
