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.
- Round-the-clock surveillance is conducted from November till May utilizing Coast Guard assets such as fast patrol vessels, air cushion vessels, interceptor craft, and Dornier aircraft to enforce laws near the rookeries.
- 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 which prohibits trade in turtle products by signatory countries
