The Northern River Terrapin, also called the Northern River Batagur and the Baska Batagur, is native to rivers,
esturine waters and mangroves of northwestern India and Pakistan and also parts of Malaysia and Indonesia. (The related Southern
River Terrapin, B. affinis, also lives in parts of Malaysia and Indonesia as well as into IndoChina.)
Related to the Painted Batagur and the Burmese Roofed Turtle, it is one of six Batagur species known.
Breeding males develop a black head and pinky-red neck and chest. The shell of the larger females can reach 60cm
(2 ft) long. They tend to live in fresh water but migrate to brakish water with sandy banks (the same bank where they hatched) for egg-laying.
They are extinct in much of their former range and elsewhere they are critically endangered by habitat degradation,
egg collection and collection of adults for consumption and illegal export trade. Known wild mature adults numbered only 100 in 2018.