Indian Star Tortoise Faces Challenges

A recent study on the Indian star tortoise (Geochelone elegans) has revealed that the species is facing twin challenges of a threat to its habitat at one level and loss of its genetic diversity at the other.

• There are three major populations of the Indian star tortoise species — in the western part and the southern part of India, and in Sri Lanka — and each sub-population has genetic traits to survive in a particular landscape.
• The distribution modelling of G. elegans has provided clear evidence of the highly fragmented habitat of the species, which is greatly influenced by an increased level ....