A new milestone in the reintroduction of tortoises in Bangladesh

April 17, 2025

Last December marked a marvelous conservation milestone for 2017 Future For Nature Award winner Caesar Rahman and his colleagues as they successfully reintroduced the captive-bred Elongated Tortoise (Indotestudo elongata) and Asian Giant Tortoise (Manouria emys phayrei) into Bangladesh’s forests. The rewilding of the 6 Elongated Tortoises marked the first time this species was reintroduced in Bangladesh!

Breeding of (critically) endangered species

With the Creative Conservation Alliance, Shariar Caesar Rahman has been working for years to protect the turtles and tortoises of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh here are 30 species of turtles and tortoises of which 26 are listed as threatened (vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered) according to the IUCN Red list. In an effort to address the critical status of the country’s turtle and tortoise populations, the Creative Conservation Alliance (run by Caesar), Turtle Survival Alliance, and Bangladesh Forest Department established the Turtle Conservation Centre in 2017. This collaborative breeding facility aims to increase the numbers of threatened native species through conservation breeding, with the goal of reintroducing them to the wild.

In 2021 they launched a pilot project, where ten Asian Giant Tortoises were released with zero poaching incidents and a 70% survival rate. The involvement of local communities, including the Mro tribal groups, has been very important in habitat protection and species monitoring. It allows local communities to feel a sense of stewardship and reduces hunting incidents of other threatened species too. Shahriar Caesar Rahman says: “The recent release of a group of captive-bred tortoises last month is a significant milestone, but it represents the culmination of over a decade of dedicated effort.“. This shows how thorough the preparation has been throughout the years and how intensive the conservation efforts have been to work towards reintroduction to the wild.

Reintroduction of the Elongated tortoise and the Asian giant tortoise

The latter, ‘reintroducing them to the wild’, was achieved last December. On December 18, 2024, six captive-bred Elongated Tortoises were released into Lawachara National Park. Following this, on December 24, 2024, ten Asian Giant Tortoises were reintroduced into a community-managed forest within the Matamuhuri Reserve Forest in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The choice to reintroduce these two species is not random. The Asian giant tortoise is considered to be functionally extinct in Bangladesh, with only a single locality near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. The Elongated Tortoise are more widespread but have been impacted by severe subsistence hunting and habitat loss.

To ensure a successful transition to the wild, the tortoises are initially housed in large bamboo soft-release enclosures, allowing them to acclimate to their natural habitat over a six-month period. The newly released tortoises will be able to leave the soft-release enclosures in 2025. Each tortoise is fitted with a radio transmitter, enabling trained para-biologists to monitor their movements and well-being. However, each radio transmitter has a limited battery so the team came up with a clever solution: a specially trained conservation detection dog named Clive will assist in long-term monitoring efforts.

What does this teach us?

Local communities play a vital role in habitat-protection, forest management and monitoring. Through collaboration, these communities have become active stewards of conservation, transforming the project into a sustainable model for rewilding and ecosystem restoration. It serves as a model for future rewilding efforts, demonstrating that with dedication, partnership, and innovative strategies, we can restore balance to our ecosystems and ensure a thriving future for nature.