Cuttack, Nov. 21: Wildlife officials in Orissa have a (s)hell of a problem — how to rescue “Lord” Jaga.

All their efforts to persuade people of a village to hand over a soft-shell freshwater turtle, a critically endangered species, have failed so far.

Residents of Khadipala, a nondescript village in Kendrapada, some 90km from here, say the young turtle is an “incarnation” of Lord Jagannath, the presiding deity of Orissa’s beach city Puri.

Even police couldn’t break the deadlock after the villagers stood firm and refused to give up the turtle they have named Jaga because of the markings on its carapace (shell) that resemble the eyes of Jagannath.

Wildlife officials say the villagers have “deified” Jaga and kept it “in captivity” in a temple. Officials of the Rajnagar wildlife forest division had last week registered a case under the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act against Mouni Baba, the priest of the temple where the turtle has been kept in a water tank.

Today, divisional forest officer P.K. Behera said “renewed efforts” to convince the villagers that confinement of endangered species was illegal had yielded no result.

Indian soft-shell turtles are one of the most critically endangered species of freshwater turtles in the country. Turtles are also a protected species in India, and the punishment for keeping one in illegal confinement could be jail for a year or more.

“We have already registered a case. If they (the villagers) continue this way, we will be left with no option but to arrest the persons who have kept the turtle in captivity as the animal is in a state of distress,” Behera told The Telegraph.

Since November 5, when a villager found Jaga in a nearby river and brought it to the temple, people have been making a beeline to offer flowers and garlands to the “sacred” turtle. Moreover, in Hindu mythology, one of Vishnu’s avatars was Kurma the turtle.

“A milk wash revealed other marks resembling a sacred conch shell, lotus and wooden sandals,” claimed Ramesh Patra, a villager associated with the temple where Jaga has been kept.

Wildlife officials admitted that Jaga did have markings on its carapace that resembled the eyes of Jagannath, but said “such markings vanish” as turtles grow up.