Red-crowned roofed turtle

Red-crowned roofed turtle
Adult male in National Chambal Sanctuary, India
Illustration, based on Francis Buchanan-Hamilton's drawing (1832)
Conservation status
Critically Endangered  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Testudines
Suborder:	Cryptodira
Superfamily:	Testudinoidea
Family:	Geoemydidae
Genus:	Batagur
Species:	B. kachuga
Binomial name
Batagur kachuga (Gray, 1831)
Synonyms[4]
List Emys kachuga Gray, 1831 Emys lineata Gray, 1831 Clemmys (Clemmys) lineata — Fitzinger, 1835 Batagur (Kachuga) lineata — Gray, 1856 Batagur ellioti Gray, 1862 Batagur lineatus — Günther, 1864 Clemmys ellioti — Strauch, 1865 Kachuga fusca Gray, 1870 Kachuga lineata — Gray, 1870 Batagur kachuga — Theobald, 1876 Batagur bakeri Lydekker, 1885 Kachuga kachuga — M.A. Smith, 1931 Batagur kachuga — Le et al., 2007[3]

The red-crowned roofed turtle or Bengal roof turtle^[1] (Batagur kachuga) is a species of freshwater turtle endemic to South Asia. It was the type species of its former genus Kachuga. Females can grow to a shell length of 56 cm (22 in) and weigh 25 kilograms (55 lb), but males are considerably smaller. The turtles like to bask in the sun on land. In the breeding season, the heads and necks of male turtles exhibit bright red, yellow and blue coloration. The females excavate nests in which they lay clutches of up to thirty eggs.

Historically, this turtle was found in central Nepal, northeastern India, Bangladesh and probably Burma (Myanmar), but it has suffered declines in population due to being harvested for meat and shells, drowned in fishing nets, water pollution, hydro-electric schemes and habitat loss. Fewer than four hundred adult females are thought to remain in the wild, with the International Union for Conservation of Nature rating this turtle as being "critically endangered". India has put conservation measures in place, and a captive breeding programme has been initiated.