A rare species of tortoise known as 'Batagur Baska' laid 21 eggs at Tortoise Breeding Centre at Karamjal Wildlife Breeding Centre of the Sundarbans under Khulna district.

Md Azad Kabir, in-charge of the breeding centre, said Batagur Baska laid 21 eggs on Friday morning on the edge of a pond.

The eggs look like that of ducks, he said, adding that they were trying to hatch these eggs naturally by putting it on sand and supervising the temperature constantly.

It will take 65-67 days to hatch the eggs, Kabir added.

According to information from the Forest Department, Batagur Baska laid a total of 197 eggs since 2017.

Altogether 110 tortoises were hatched at the Karamjal Wildlife Breeding Centre until 2019, while three tortoises among those died in Indian and Bangladesh territories, the sources said.

The Tortoise Breeding Centre was set up in 2014 in Karamjal and eight rare tortoises of Batagur Baska species were released in a pond.

Mohammad Belayet Hossain, divisional forest officer of the Sundarbans East Zone, said there are 252 Batagur Baska tortoises at the breeding centre right now. Of them, 23, including four female ones, are adult.

Ten more tortoises of this species will be released in the Sundarbans, he added.