Turtles are gradually becoming rare in the world. There are many islands in Myanmar where turtles can lay their eggs. Thamihla island is one of them. Thamihla island is situated in Ngawun river. The area of Thmihla island is about 3 miles and has a oval shape. The length of the island is 2 miles, and the width is 4.5 furlong. The island is 50 feet high in the south and 70 feet high in the North. And there is a 18 feet high pagoda in the North.

There are 4 turtles paths. They go by the names, Phayar Taung Cove, Thanban Cove, Supthwarphue Cove and Kalarlay Cove. Now, the turtles use Supthwarphue Cove only because the other paths have become rough with stones.

The significance of Thamihla island is the fact that the Pyinthar turtles lay their eggs annually, because there is a feeding ground area for turtles around Thamihla island. About 12 miles South-East of the island, you will find many coral reefs where you can find food for the turtles.

The Pyinthar turtles have a mixture of green, gray and brown colour. The length of the adult turtle is 4 feet, and 3.5 feet wide and weigh 80 kilos. We can differentiate species by the carapace and frontal scale of the turtle. And the carapace it have five central scale, several lateral scales and without nuchal scale. It has a pair of prefrontal scale under the nose.

Turtles live to 120 years. When they become 35 years old, female turtles can lay eggs. They crawl up on to the sand bank at night and dig holes in the sand for laying eggs. They lay their eggs only when they get the temperature they want, that is why some of the turtles return back to the sea without laying the eggs. Because the female turtles are can swim a long way sometimes they even reach Indonesia and Malaysia. And that is why it is important to tag these turtles so that we can identify them later on.

To keep the eggs from the danger of man and animals and also to increase the rate of eggs survival, the eggs are transfer to turtles breeding farms. After 60 days, the turtles hatch out of their shells. Then, the hatched turtles are again transfer for a short time to turtles breeding ponds, then later sent back into the sea. According to research expects, it is known that only 2% of the turtles reached to become adults.

Since 1986, conservation on turtles species and research team of the Ministry of Livestock Breeding and Fishery has been try to prevent the extension of Myanmar’s rare sea turtles and other near extinct animals at Thamihla island.