The star pattern is the problem. It makes the tortoise conspicuous in the pet trade, and its small adult size makes it easy to conceal and transport in quantity. Seizures at airports and border posts across South and South East Asia have run into the thousands of individuals at a time, with published estimates of tens of thousands taken from the wild each year.
At the 2019 Conference of the Parties, CITES transferred Geochelone elegans from Appendix II to Appendix I, which prohibits commercial international trade rather than merely regulating it.
The pattern may not be ornamental. The high contrast of radiating light lines on a domed shell breaks up outline in dry grass and leaf shadow, so what looks conspicuous on a table can be difficult to pick out in the habitat where the animal actually lives.