Maharashtra: 59 turtles rescued from artificial pond at temple in Thane

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As many as fifty-nine turtles were rescued from an artificial pond at a temple in Maharashtra's Thane district, an official from the forest department said on Sunday, according to the PTI.

The Thane forest department in a joint operation with Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) rescued the turtles on Saturday, he said.

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Twenty-two out of 59 turtles were native species such as Indian flap-shell, black pond and Indian tent turtles, which are protected under the Wildlife Protection Act,

1972 and the remaining 37 were red-eared sliders, an exotic species, Pawan Sharma of RAWW said, the PTI reported.

The turtles were examined by veterinarians at RAWW. The native species will be released into the wild, said Ashok Kateskar, round officer, Thane forest department.

People buy exotic turtles from the market when they are small and easy to maintain. But when they grow old and big, they become difficult to look after and people abandon them in natural or artificial waterbodies, which is unethical and illegal, Sharma said, as per the PTI.

Meanwhile, in an another incident on Sunday, a 65-year-old man reportedly jumped into the creek near Babaji Patil Wadi in Mumbra area of Thane district in Maharashtra, the Regional Disaaster Management Cell (RDMC) of the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) said.

According to the RDMC, the incident took place at around 12:53 pm and the matter was initially reported to the Disaster Management Unit by Mumbra Fire Station.

Upon receiving the information, Mumbra Police personnel, along with personnel from the Disaster Management Department and TDRF, immediately arrived at the scene. They were equipped with one rescue vehicle and two boats to conduct a search operation and a potential rescue mission and began a rescue operation.

The son of the man reportedly informed the authorities that his father's mental state was not stable, shedding light on the possible reasons for his actions, the RDMC said in a statement on Sunday evening.

The civic body said that the efforts were made to locate the man with the help of the fire brigade personnel and their boat during a search operation lasting approximately one hour around 1:00 pm. However, the search operation had to be temporarily halted but it was later resumed.

At around 5:00 pm, the search operation was resumed with the participation of fire brigade personnel, disaster management department staff, TDRF officials, and two boats. The dedicated teams worked for about one and a half hours, continuing their determined efforts to locate the missing individual.

(with PTI inputs)