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Celebrate 250+ and counting

Addyaita, the peerless one, must rank among the true wonders of the natural world. Until recently, it got by namelessly. As one of the few globally surviving members of a fascinating group of reptiles, this exotic giant tortoise in the Kolkata zoo is a spectacular attraction, having turned 250+ and apparently in good health; he came to the Kolkata zoo in 1875, already aged 120+. If the records are reasonably correct, Addyaita, which belongs to a species from the Aldabra Island in the Indian Ocean, was at least an octogenarian when Charles Darwin (1809-1882) was studying the evolutionary peculiarities of the tortoise's even bigger cousins in the Galapagos off the coast of Ecuador. The giant tortoises of the Galapagos isles are among the best known. Darwin discovered that though these were similar to tortoises on the mainland, they were much larger and demonstrated different characteristics based on how hard it was to find food on a particular island — this influenced the shape of their carapace (the shell) and the length of their necks — providing evidence of evolutionary changes. Sustained hunting by whalers over two centuries led to the extinction of four sub-species of the Galapagos giant tortoises, and the World Conservation Union has added the surviving 11 to the protected list. Human-made calamity overtook those in the western Indian Ocean islands, notably Aldabra, Comoros, and the granitic Seychelles, with the early European settlers virtually exterminating them.

Science has long held these creatures in great esteem. Giant tortoises, which date back millions of years, are the subject of deep scientific study for conservation and breeding. They can survive, experts say, for up to six months without food or water. But such is the precarious condition of these animals that only one individual from a sub-species of the Pinta island is believed to survive in the Galapagos, earning him the irreverent nickname, "Lonesome George." The Indian Ocean tortoises of the Seychelles, originating probably in Madagascar, may be confined to Aldabra. Happily, two individuals are found in captivity in India — Addyaita in Kolkata's Alipore Zoo and another male, a callow youth in comparison (at 80 to 100 years) in the Chennai Snake Park. While science contemplates ways, notably cloning, to ensure that "Lonesome George" does not let his kind slip into extinction by failing to reproduce, turtle biologists worry that many others — 33 species in India, including land-based tortoises — may be threatened by unsustainable harvesting, poaching, chemical pollution, and loss of wetlands. The Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, which recently studied inland wetlands, found 23 freshwater turtle species, many of them vulnerable, in various States. Addyaita is a symbol of hope that, with humankind showing greater wisdom than it has done over the past 250+ years, and with last-ditch conservationist policies combining with revolutionary science, he and other venerables can escape the indescribably sad tortoise-march to extinction.

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