India is home to 28 species of freshwater turtles and tortoises some of them extremely endangered. Freshwater turtle and tortoise research started in the early 1980s, when Prof Edward Moll of Eastern Illinois University accepted an Indo-American Fellowship for a year long sabbatical, and based his studies and surveys conducted throughout India, at CrocBank; several students served as research assistants/scholars, mainly J. Vijaya and S. Bhaskar, on the project and ultimately pursued further studies on reptiles. Dr. J. G. Frazier, Smithsonian, and Dr. Michael Ewert, Indiana University were collaborators on continuing turtle reproduction studies. CrocBank research biologists have studied freshwater turtles in the Chambal River in Uttar Pradesh on a WWF- India grant.