Operation Olivia, an initiative to protect Olive Ridley turtles, is undertaken by
- (a)Indian Navy
- (b)Indian Coast Guard
- (c)Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
- (d)Ministry of Earth Sciences
Correct — B, Indian Coast Guard. Operation Olivia is a long-running Indian Coast Guard mission, active since the early 1980s, to protect the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles that gather to nest along the Odisha coast. Each nesting season the Coast Guard mounts surface and air patrols off Gahirmatha and the Rushikulya and Devi river mouths to stop illegal trawling. The operation is run by the Indian Coast Guard, so option (b) is correct.
- (a)Indian Navy — Coastal patrolling and turtle-protection enforcement of this kind is a Coast Guard task, not a role of the blue-water Indian Navy.
- (c)Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change — The Ministry frames wildlife-protection policy, but Operation Olivia itself is a named Coast Guard operation at sea.
- (d)Ministry of Earth Sciences — That Ministry handles ocean and atmospheric science, not this turtle-protection patrol.
Operation Olivia is an Indian Coast Guard operation that protects Olive Ridley turtles during their nesting season on the Odisha coast, chiefly around Gahirmatha (the world's largest known rookery), Rushikulya and the Devi river mouth. The Coast Guard enforces the fishing ban and the use of Turtle Excluder Devices.
The distractors are all plausible maritime or environmental bodies; the discriminator is that the on-water enforcement of this operation is a Coast Guard function.
- Operation Olivia is conducted by the Indian Coast Guard, running since the early 1980s.
- It protects Olive Ridley turtles nesting on the Odisha coast (Gahirmatha, Rushikulya, Devi river mouth).
- Gahirmatha is the world's largest known nesting site for Olive Ridleys; the mass nesting is called arribada.
- The Coast Guard enforces bans on mechanised trawling without Turtle Excluder Devices in the no-fishing zone.
- Assuming any maritime operation belongs to the Indian Navy.
- Attributing named wildlife operations to the Environment Ministry by default.
Names-a-mission item — attach 'Operation Olivia' to the agency that runs it (the Indian Coast Guard).
The sea coast of which one of the following states has become famous as a nesting place for the giant Olive Ridley turtles from South America?
- (a) Goa
- (b) Gujarat
- (c) Orissa
- (d) Tamil Nadu
Answer(c) Orissa
Same concept — Olive Ridley turtle nesting on India's east coast. That UPSC item pins the nesting coast to Orissa (Odisha), which is exactly the coast Operation Olivia protects.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Gahirmatha, the world's largest rookery of Olive Ridley turtles, is located in which state?
- (a)Odisha
- (b)Tamil Nadu
- (c)Gujarat
- (d)Kerala
Answer(a) Odisha — on India's east coast.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The mass nesting of Olive Ridley turtles on the Odisha coast is known as?
- (a)Arribada
- (b)Spawning
- (c)Migration
- (d)Hatchery
Answer(a) Arribada — the synchronised mass nesting.