Software for exploring the turtle and tortoise diversity of Northeast India

The Northeastern region of India is at the conjuction of the Himalaya and Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspots. It is regarded as one of the major center of turtle diversity (Das, 1990). Turtles of 23 species, belonging to three families, Geoemydidae, Testudinidae and Trionychidae are recorded from northeast India (Ernst, Altenburg & Barbour, 2000; Das, 2001). A database with all the requisite information from molecular to behavioral is a necessity to make all the local communities aware of the need for conservation of the turtles of Northeast India. This new software is designed to further understanding of population status, distribution patterns, molecular information etc., and will be of great value in formulating conservation strategies and determining taxonomic relationships among these turtle species.

The concept of organizing a Database for the turtles of Northeast India came to our mind to fulfill the need for a better identification system to enforce the protection regimes for turtle biodiversity. The database was designed with information on the turtles of Northeast India which comprises of both the self generated information based on first hand investigation and from various sources, such as information retrieval from different researchers of this region including literature search.

The major aims of the database are:

1. to generate a rich source of information from behavior to molecule for the turtles of Northeast India by creating a Data Bank,
2. to provide necessary information for the conservation of different turtle species of Northeast India and
3. to educate the local people and budding conservationists regarding the Chelonian resources of the Northeast region.

The database is freely available for academic & non-profit users. Although, it is now available in the form of CD-ROM, We are planning to host the database in our university web-site i.e. gauhati.ac.in.

The turtle and tortoise diversity Database has been developed in the Microsoft Windows 2000 server Family, Windows XP Platform / Environment. The Language / Software Package used are Visual Basic 6.0 front-end, MSDN and SQL Server 7.0 as back-end. The Visual Basic-6.0 is a highly interactive event-driven programming language, which is used for developing applications for MS-Windows. Visual Basic follows the standard syntax of BASIC, except that some new language features have also been added to it to give more flexibility to the program since Visual Basic relies very heavily on the Windows Graphical user interface (GUI) applications.

Minimum hardware and software requirements

Hardware: Pentium(r) III Processor (350 MHz) ,40 GB HDD,32 MB RAM, One hub of 8 ports, UTP Cables, Ethernet Card for each machine, Any colour monitor of 24-bit resolution.

Software: Operating System: Windows 2000, NT 4.0 or later versions, Visual Basic 6.0 as Front End, SQL Server 2000 as Back End. The prime functions of the software specified for the users are Initial entry/registration to database, allows easy information retrieval for each query on turtles searching the system for the user and providing hard copy of data found in the various searches.

For easy retrieval of data from the database a powerful search facility has been created with different user-friendly search options.

• About the Database
• Search from species list
• Family wise search
• Molecular level information
1. Protein structures
2. Molecular phylogeny of turtles.
• 'Go to another search' option for quick search.

Fig. 1. Database query search page with options for facilitating easy searching. [photo Chittaranjan Baruah]

The query search form for the Database is shown in Figure 1. The major contents for each species in the database are: taxonomy of different turtles of Northeast India; Kingdom to Species with photographs; conservation status of each turtle species. Description for each species, Common name , Distribution in Northeast India (Iverson, 1992), Habitat availability, Population status, threats (van Dijk, Stuart, & Rhodin, 2000), species management, legal status, global conservation status and references are incorporated (Figs. 2 & 3).

Fig. 2. Information retrieval from the database. B. Example of a species search in the database.

Fig. 3. Information retrieval from the database. A. Family-wise search. [photo Chittaranjan Baruah]

The Database also has a quick search facility from one query to another by clicking "Go for another search" option. Simple menus and dialogue box selections make the search tool operate well for assisting scientists, researchers and conservationists. Bioinformatics tools and techniques were utilized for modeling of turtle proteins, sequence analyses of turtle DNA and protein, data mining and also for molecular phylogenetic analysis. The uploaded molecular information will help all the database users obtain information on the molecular characterization of turtles which are not available in a conventional wildlife Database.

Most of the freshwater turtles of Northeast India are protected under Schedule-I and Schedule-II of Indian Wildlife (protection) Act, 1972 so there is an urgent need for a turtle diversity Database with all relevant information for providing more precise information that will be helpful for effective conservation programs. Accurate documentation of phylogenetic diversity is an important tool in developing effective conservation strategies (Vane-Wright, Humphries & Williams, 1991). The "Turtles and tortoises diversity information system of Northeast India" system is designed to satisfy all the conservation needs as completely as possible.

The design of the package is executed in such a manner so that the users can operate the system by using either the keyboard or the mouse in order to invoke commands and pushbuttons. The Database is presently ready for distribution in the form of CD-ROM (Windows version) which can be accessed freely by academic users upon request. Further, Database can be used to formulate conservation strategies and taxonomic relationship among the turtle species. The Database is a user-friendly Window-based computer package for retrieving the customized turtle information of Northeast India. The package provides windows GUI that makes software more accessible for the casual computer user and more convenient for the experienced computer user.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are thankful to Mr. Naba Pathari, B.Tech. (Bioinformatics) and Mr. Anjan Bora, DOEACC-A Level for their help during the development of the turtle diversity Database software.

REFERENCES

• Das, I.1990. Distributional records for Chelonians from North Eastern India. Journal of Bombay Natural History Society 87:91-97.
• Das, I. 2001. Die Schildkröten des Indischen Subkontinents. Frankfurtam Main: Chimaira.
• Ernst, C. H., Altenburg, R. G. M. & Barbour, R. W. 2000. Turtles of the World. World Biodiversity Database, CD-ROM Series, Windows, Version 1.2. Amsterdam: Biodiversity Center of ETI.
• Iverson, J.B. 1992. A revised checklist with distribution maps of the turtles of the world. Privately printed, Richmond, Indiana. 283 pp.
• van Dijk, P.P., Stuart, B.L., Rhodin, A.G.J. 2000. Asian Turtle Trade: Proceedings of a Workshop on Conservation and Trade of Freshwater Turtles and Tortoises in Asia. Chelonian Research Foundation. MTC Printing, Lunenburg, MA.
• Vane-Wright, R.I., Humphries, C.J., Williams, P.H. 1991. What to protect? Systematics and the agony of choice. Biological Conservation 55, 235-254.