Black Softshell Turtle

The black softshell turtle, also called the Bostami turtle or mohan, is a freshwater turtle previously placed in the genus Aspideretes. It was long believed to be inbred individuals of the Indian softshell or the Indian peacock softshell, but it is a distinct species and a close relative of the latter. It has a very distinct nose and face, with a tube-like snout that acts something like a snorkel (Wikipedia, general species account).

It is found in India (Assam, Tripura and West Bengal) and Bangladesh (Chittagong and Sylhet). In India it survives in temple ponds, including the Hayagriva Madhava Temple in Assam and Kalyan Sagar lake at the Tripura Sundari Temple in Udaipur, Tripura. With so little wild habitat, these turtles depend on visitors for feeding, so their natural diet is hard to determine. The average clutch is about 20 eggs, which take 92–108 days to hatch, though a high share of eggs fail to hatch.