Operation Olivia

• Every year, the Indian Coast Guard’s “Operation Olivia”, initiated in the early 1980s, helps protect Olive Ridley turtles as they congregate along the Odisha coast for breeding and nesting from November to December.
• The Orissa Marine Fisheries Act empowers the Coast Guard as one of its enforcement agencies.

• The Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea) is listed as vulnerable under the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List.

• All five species of sea turtles found in India are included in Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and in the Appendix I of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which prohibits trade in turtle products by signatory countries.

• Studies have found three main factors that damage Olive Ridley turtles and their eggs

1. Heavy predation of eggs by dogs and wild animals
2. Indiscriminate fishing with trawlers and gill nets
3. Beach soil erosion

Nesting habits

• The Olive Ridley has one of the most extraordinary nesting habits in the natural world, including mass nesting called arribadas.
• The 480-km-long Odisha coast has three arribada beaches at Gahirmatha, the mouth of the Devi river, and in Rushikulya, where about 1 lakh nests are found annually.