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Marine Turtle Newsletter 23:2, © 1982

Turtle Slaughter in India

J. Vijaya
Madras Snake Part Trust, Deer Sanctuary, Guindy, Madras 600022, India

During the winter months, fish markets in West Bengal become turtle slaughter houses. Both freshwater and marine turtles arrive by train, lorry and bicycle in the early morning by the hundreds. Turtle meat is relished by Bengalis: nowhere else in India (except at Tuticorin in the southern state of Tamil Nadu) is there such a scramble for turtles.

At 7am on a Thursday morning January, 1982 we arrived at a market in Calcutta, carrying out routine survey work for the Freshwater Chelonian Group of the IUCN. Several Pacific Ridleys were on their backs, eyes bulged from the pressure of being overturned for several days with flippers wired together. Three or four customers wanted sea turtle meat so a female was slid across the slippery, gouged concrete floor next to the scales. The young cutter drained his tea cup, and picked up the just sharpened knife. He bent over and deftly cut around the margin of the plastron, avoiding the flailing flippers and the sudden desperate attempts to reach and bite the knife hand. The dark blood overflowed onto the cement as the plastron was ripped off, all of the pulsating innards exposed. The flapping and biting action continued, but feebler now as the reptile was eviserated and the important meat carved out for weighing. The female ridley didn't die for 10 minutes. The mounds of fully formed but unshelled eggs were put in a basket for separate sale. Only the carapaces were thrown away. No one was concerned about the suffering, nor was there any worry about the Indian Wildlife Act, under which sea turtles receive the "highest" protection!