In a first for the west coast of India, a female Olive Ridley turtle was successfully satellite-tagged in Velas, Maharashtra. Virendra Tiwari, the additional principal chief conservator of forests and head of Mangroves Cell, said, “This is the first satellite tagging of Olive Ridley Sea Turtle on the Western Coast of India. A research project ‘Tracking the migratory movements of Olive Ridley sea turtles off the coast of Maharashtra’, commissioned by the Mangrove Foundation, Maharashtra Forest Department to the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), will help understand the movement pattern of Olive Ridley turtles off the coast of Western India.”

“This turtle has been named ‘Prathama’ as it is the first to be satellite tagged in Maharashtra (and for Western Coast of India) and it signifies the start of a new era in sea turtle conservation in the state,” he said. “The Mangrove Foundation, Maharashtra Forest Department and WII plan to tag the four more Olive Ridley turtles from different beaches in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg,” Tiwari added.