After Odisha, A Bright Yellow Turtle Has Been Spotted In Bengal

A yellow turtle was rescued from a pond in West Bengal on Tuesday. This makes it the second time this year that a rare yellow turtle has been spotted in India - one was also found in the state of Odisha back in July. 

Indian Forest Service officer Debashish Sharma took to Twitter yesterday to share pictures of the turtle with its bright yellow shell. According to him, the turtle was found in a pond in Burdwan and rescued. He attributed its rare colouring to some "genetic mutation or congenital disorder due to absence of tyrosine pigment."

"Today a yellow turtle was rescued from a pond in Burdwan, WB. It's one kind of a rarely occurring Flapshell Turtle," he wrote.

It's an albino kind whose peculiar yellow colour is may be bcoz of either some genetic mutation or congenital disorder due to absence of tyrosine pigment. @SudhaRamenIFS @drqayumiitk @wiiofficial1 @moefcc @susantananda3 @mvraoforindia pic.twitter.com/Yfhdu3D06t

— Debashish Sharma, IFS (@deva_iitkgp) October 27, 2020

Pictures of the yellow turtle have been widely circulated on the microblogging platform, where they have generated huge interest. Senior IFS officer Ramesh Pandey was among those who retweeted the pics. 

"This is the second incident in the recent past when Yellow Flapshell Turtle has been found. Before this one Yellow Flapshell Turtle was found in Balasore, Odisha. Still not very clear whether a new species or albinism or mutant albino," he wrote.

This is the second incident in the recent past when Yellow Flapshell Turtle has been found. Before this one Yellow Flapshell turtle was found in Balasore, Odisha. Still not very clear whether a new species or albinism or mutant albino. https://t.co/hTL062qN5B

— Ramesh Pandey IFS (@rameshpandeyifs) October 27, 2020

In July, residents of a village in Odisha's Balasore district had spotted a yellow turtle. It was rescued and handed over to the forest department. 

"The whole shell and the body of the rescued turtle is yellow. This is a rare turtle, I have never seen one like this," Bhanoomitra Acharya, Wildlife Warden, was quoted as saying by news agency ANI at the time.