Rare golden turtle spotted in Nepal, being 'revered as an incarnation of god Vishnu'

For the first time ever, a rare golden-coloured turtle has been discovered in Nepal and it is now reportedly being hailed as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu. The Mithila Wildlife Trust identified the rare animal as an Indian Flapshell Turtle or Lissemys punctata andersoni and cited the reason of reptile’s colour as ‘lack of melanin’ that occurs due to rare genetic mutation affecting the pigmentation. As per the study published in researchgate, the condition that gave gold shell to the turtle is called chromatic leucism.

It is only the fifth time that a golden turtle of the same species has been discovered anywhere in the world. The study has also elaborated that colour aberrations are very rare because they affect the mortality of the individuals by giving away their camouflage.

The study said, “Colour aberrations are quite rare in nature because the affected individuals may be disadvantaged in their environment.  For instance,  a  normally coloured  L. punctata is much better camouflaged in the murky, greenish,  aqueous environment the species frequents than a  gold-coloured individual.”

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However, according to some experts, the discovery holds greater importance. Kamal Devkota, a reptile expert who documented, identified and recently published a research paper on the turtle along with Dev Narayan Mandal and Hinrich Kaiser, reportedly said that it had a deep spiritual significance. As quoted by Ladbible, Devkota said that as per ‘Hindu mythology the upper shell of the turtle denotes the sky and lower shell denotes earth’.

Rare all-yellow turtle in Odisha

Before Nepal identified its first turtle with unique colour, locals from Sujanpur village in Soro block of Balasore district, Odisha had rescued a rare yellow turtle and handed over the animal to the Forest Department officials. After studying the unique all-yellow turtle, Bhanoomitra Acharya, Wildlife Warden, said that it was a unique reptile and he had never seen a turtle like this one before. According to an Indian Forester Susanta Nanda officer who is fairly well known on Twitter, the Turtle may be an albino. He also cited an example of such a find in Singh a few years back.

"The whole shell and the body of the rescued turtle is yellow. This is a rare turtle, I have never seen one like this," Acharya said.

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