Abstract

DEMOGRAPHY OF FRESH WATER TURTLES IN CONFLUENCE AREA OF FIVE RIVERS (PANCHNADA) OFF NORTHERN INDIA

Ashish Tripathi and *Sushil K. Upadhyay

ABSTRACT

Panchnada area have a prodigious precise attention with the facet of future researches of fresh water turtles in northern India. Broadly all the turtles are grouped into two categories viz.; hard shell turtles (Emydid turtles) and soft shell turtles (Trionychid turtles). There were 16 specific representative of hard shell turtles that have thick, hard carapace and plastron, whereas other 6 species of soft shell turtles are roofed with soft fleshy carapace and plastron recorded so far by earlier workers. Few researches have been worked out on Indian fresh water turtles in yesteryears by earlier workers and predominantly dealt with taxonomy and their broad temporal and spacial distributional assortments. The present exploration carried out for the demographic bioeciology, population dynamics and biodiversity of fresh water turtles of Panchnada area off northern India to device management stratagems for better establishment and species enrichment of wildlife in the carefully chosen zone.

Keywords: Fresh water turtles, Population dynamics, Hard and soft shell turtles, Biodiversity, Panchnada area.