Type Locality: Insula Java (Indonesia)
Common, known to be distributed in Southern, Central and North-eastern India (Ahmed et al., 2020). It has six subspecies: trijuga (distributed in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu), coronata (distributed in Kerala), edeniana (distributed in Myanmar and Yunnan), indopeninsularis (distributed in northern and north-eastern India, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal), parkeri (Sri Lanka), thermalis (distributed in Sri Lanka and Maldives).

Conservation Status:

This species is listed as Near Threatened in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (https://www.iucnredlist.org/).


This is a semi-aquatic species, which can be found in man-made ponds, water bodies with aquatic vegetation, agro-wells, rivers and flowing water (Ahmed et al., 2020). Though the species is well adaptable species, but a decline in its population has been observed due to poaching for consumption, egg collection, pet trade and accidental or deliberate fires are known threats to the species (Ahmed et al., 2020).