‘Tortoise Guardians’ Protect Rare Giants

‘Tortoise Guardians’ Protect Rare Giants

By Moushumi Basu Seventy-two-year-old Namgaukum, from India’s northeastern state of Nagaland, cherishes rare childhood memories of riding an Asian giant tortoise (Manouria emys phayrei) through the forests near his Old Jalukie village. For the then five-year-old, the nearly two-foot-long carapace of the animals — the largest living tortoise in mainland Asia — often resembled a greyish-brown boulder in the forest about a foot above the mushy leaf…