Female Olive Ridley turtle first to be satellite-tagged in Maharashtra's Velas

Prathama, the geo-tagged turtle. The Mangrove Foundation, Maharashtra Forest Department and WII plan to tag four more Olive Ridley turtles from different beaches in Raigad, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg

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.

According to the website of WWF India (World Wide Fund for Nature-India), "The Olive Ridley turtles are the smallest and most abundant of all sea turtles found in the world, inhabiting warm waters of the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian oceans. These turtles, along with their cousin the Kemp's Ridley turtle, are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada, where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs. Though found in abundance, their numbers have been declining over the past few years, and the species is recognised as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red list."

WWF-India website also states that growing to about two feet in length, and 50 kg in weight, the Olive Ridley gets its name from its olive coloured carapace, which is heart-shaped and rounded. These turtles spend their entire lives in the ocean and migrate thousands of kilometres between feeding and mating grounds in the course of a year.