Guwahati: Pranab Malakar, known for successful breeding of black softshell turtles, was felicitated jointly by senior officials of the Assam State Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden and members of Help Earth, a non-profit organisation involved in environment conservation, at an awareness programme to observe World Turtle Day in the city on Wednesday.

Malakar is the caretaker of Hayagriva Madhava temple and its adjacent pond at Hajo in Kamrup district. Black softshell turtle is declared "extinct in the wild" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),

"There is very limited funding for conservation of reptiles and amphibians because people simply do not care enough about them," general secretary of Help Earth Jayaditya Purkayastha said. "Majority of funds go towards conservation and protection of tigers and, in the case of Assam, rhinos, as the animals, being crowd-pullers, generate most income in terms of tourism and public interest," he added.

Jayaditya said: "Malakar, being caretaker of the pond, has sufficient knowledge on breeding of different species of turtles in that pond. Because of his expertise, we have engaged him in our turtle project," Purkayastha said.

"Malakar is instrumental in successful breeding of the turtles there. We created an artificial incubation centre here and it was he who take care of eggs and hatchlings till they reached a stage when they can be released in the water," he added.