The black soft-shell turtle is officially extinct in the wild, but a centuries-old Indian temple and its nature-loving caretaker are helping the creature make a tentative comeback.

The northeastern state of ­Assam was once rich in freshwater turtles, but habitat loss and over-exploitation - they were once a popular local food - have massively depleted their population. 

The black soft-shell turtle was declared extinct in the wild in 2002 by the International Union for Conservation of ­Nature, while the Indian soft-shell turtle and the Indian peacock soft-shell turtle are classified as vulnerable. But all the while, the pond of the Hayagriva Madhav temple in the Hajo pilgrimage ­center has provided a safe haven, thanks to the sacred status of turtles protecting them from harm.

"There are plenty of turtles in the temple pond," said Jayaditya Purkayastha, from conservation group Good Earth. 

The group has teamed up with the temple authorities in a breeding program.

"The population of the turtle in Assam has gone down by a great extent. So we thought we needed to intervene and do something to save the species from extinction," he told AFP.

In January his organization's first batch of 35 turtle hatchlings, including 16 black soft-shells hand-reared at the temple, was released into a nearby wildlife sanctuary.