90-yr-old tortoise seized, released in Ramsagar

Officials of forest department released a rare tortoise, aged about 90, in the water of historic Ramsagar on Saturday night, seven hours after it was caught in a fishing hook in the water of National Ecological Park in Sadar upazila.

The tortoise, weighing 24.20 kilogram and two feet in length, was never seen before in and around Ramsagar, said forest officials in the district.

Locals said Md Raju, a youth of Auliapur village, caught the tortoise while fishing in Ramsagar around 4:00pm on Saturday. He later left the place secretly with the tortoise.

Anyone can catch fish in the water body by paying a certain amount of money, said the officials.

In the evening, Raju sold it to a fish trader for Tk 16,600 in Barabandar area of Dinajpur town.

On information, local administration officials along with a police team rescued the rare creature from the house of the fish trader in Barabandar area, said forest official Abdus Salam Tuhin, also curator of Ramsagar Ecological Park.

The tortoise was released in Ramsagar around 11:30pm, he said.

Forest officials said more such large tortoises may exist in Ramsagar.

Tuhin said it seemed to him that the tortoise caught in the water is an Indian species and aged over  90 years.