Olive Ridley sea turtles

Why in News?

• Indian Coast Guard is organising “Operation Olivia” for protecting olive ridley turtles.
• Every year, the program that was 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.

About Olive Ridley sea turtles

• 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, are best known for their unique mass nesting called Arribada, where thousands of females come together on the same beach to lay eggs.
• The coast of Orissa in India is the largest mass nesting site for the Olive-ridley and has three arribada beaches at Gahirmatha, the mouth of the Devi river, and in Rushikulya, where about 1 lakh nests are found annually.
• Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary (between Dhamra River in the north and Brahmani River in the south) is the world's largest nesting beach for Olive Ridley Turtles.
• More recently, a new mass nesting site has been discovered in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, with more than 5,000 nests reported in a season.

Conservation Issues

• Olive-ridleys face serious threats across their migratory route, habitat, and nesting beaches, due to human activities such as turtle unfriendly fishing practices, development and exploitation of nesting beaches for ports, and tourist centers, poaching for meat shell, leather, etc.
• International trade in these turtles and their products is banned under CITES Appendix I.
• The species is recognized as Vulnerable by the IUCN Red list.

Prelims Question

Consider the following statements regarding “Olive Ridley Turtles”:
1.It is the largest species of sea turtles.
2.They are considered critically endangered by IUCN Red list.
Which among the above statements is/are correct?
(a)1 only 
(b)2 only 
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to prelims question