Residents of a village in Odisha’s Balasore witnessed a rare sight on Sunday. A yellow turtle was spotted near the village. The turtle was handed over to the Forest Department officials by locals of Sujanpur village. 

“This is a rare turtle, I have never seen one like this,” Wildlife Warden B Acharya told ANI. 

An Indian Forest Services (IFS) officer Susanta Nanda also tweeted a video of the small turtle swimming inside a vessel, saying it was an albino. “Most probably it was an albino. One such aberration was recorded by locals in Sindh few years back,” he wrote. 

He further tweeted a close-up picture of the turtle, saying that it has pink eyes which is the feature of albinism.

Several people on Twitter said they have never seen a yellow turtle. 

“Certainly a rare category. I had never seen. Good to hand over it to forest officials. More is required to b found out,” a user wrote. 

Meanwhile, another user said, “Nothing new, it’s an Albino Indian Flapshell turtle, these turtles are found all over India (in normal colour offcourse). Though the species is common this particular specimen is very special as only 1 in 10,000 babies hatch as albino, chances of survival in wild are very low.” 

Another user posted, “Turtle is getting married, that’s haldi chandan uptan.”