25 June 2019




Four days back, when Bunty Tao, a ranger under the Hapoli forest division in Arunachal Pradesh’s Kamle district, saw the tortoise, it was buried in the arms of a villager.

“They were taking it home — possibly to make a meal out of it,” says the 47-year-old Tao, who then decided to intervene. “I immediately asked them to hand it over. ‘Hunting is wrong’ — I told them before riding off.”

Tao, who joined the forest department as an 18-year-old almost three decades ago, then fed the tortoise and kept him in a forested plot of land near his home. But before that he took a picture and sent it to ‘Arunachal Against Hunting’, one of the many wildlife-related Whatsapp groups he is a part of.

“I’ve seen turtles and tortoises before, but I knew this one was special. It looked grand and impressive,” says Tao. Little did he know his chance rescue would spell what could be potentially be a new chapter in history of turtle conservation in the Northeast.

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