Conservation Status

Urbanisation, farming, dam building, deforestation, pollution, and habitat loss and degradation pose the greatest danger to Asian narrow-headed softshell turtles. When freshwater ecosystems like wetlands and rivers are destroyed, turtles lose a lot of their habitat, which includes places they need to nest, forage, and spawn.

Water Pollution: The Asian narrow-headed softshell turtle is seriously endangered due to the pollution of water sources caused by things like industrial discharge, mining, agricultural runoff, and solid waste. Turtle populations are susceptible to the effects of pollution on water quality, food availability, and ecosystem health as a whole. This includes plastics, heavy metals, and pesticides that accumulate in bodies of water.

There has been an overexploitation of the Asian narrow-headed softshell turtle due to its many uses, such as in traditional medicine, as a pet, and for human food. Poaching and illegal harvesting of turtles for their flesh, eggs, shells, and other components is a major problem for wild populations, especially in places where turtles are culturally important or thought to have therapeutic qualities.

Because of bycatch, which occurs when fishing operations and their habitats intersect, Asian narrow-headed softshell turtles are at risk. This danger comes from fishing gear including gillnets, trawls, and fishing lines.

While migrating or feeding, turtles, both young and old, are especially vulnerable to harm, drowning, or death due to entanglement or inadvertent capture in fishing gear.

Climate change and its effects, such as increased temperatures, changed patterns of precipitation, and rising sea levels, bring about additional dangers to the Asian narrow-headed softshell turtle and its freshwater habitats. Turtles are already vulnerable to environmental stresses, and changes in water temperature, flow patterns, and the availability of habitat may make their lives much more difficult.

Asian narrow-headed softshell turtle populations can be negatively affected by invasive species, such as predators (e.g., feral pigs, dogs, cats) or competitors (e.g., invasive fish species), through activities such as eating eggs and hatchlings, vying for resources, or changing the structure and dynamics of their habitat.