Achievements & Awards
Highlighted achievements of TREE Foundation to date:
- Released more than 33,42,870 Olive Ridley hatchlings (baby turtles) successfully to the sea.
- Successfully satellite tagged 2 Olive Ridleys and 1 Green turtle becoming the first ever NGO in India to satellite-tag turtles.
- Trained and developed a Sea Turtle Protection Force of over 363 members from 222 fishing villages
- 7,040 artisanal fishermen provided intensive training in sea turtle conservation through hands-on workshops.
- More than 3,750 officials from the Department of Forest and Fisheries, Indian Coast Guard, Marine Police and Fisheries Inspectors have undergone State level workshops including a multi-disciplinary plan for effective and efficient protected marine species law enforcement.
- More than 3,91,710 fishing community members have undergone marine mammal awareness programs developed and conducted by the TREE Foundation.
- 3,260 trawl boat owner association members are involved in the strategically designed step-by-step plan developed for the voluntary implementation of TEDs.
- TREE Foundation in cooperation with the fishermen has placed ‘How to Safely Release Turtle’ sticker on 4,230 boats covering almost all trawl/mechanized boat available in and around Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
- Trained more than 3700 teachers by conducting annual teachers workshops
- Educated more than 2,57,825 students through various awareness activities conducted in more than 348 schools & colleges enrolled under “TREE Foundation Ocean Guardian School Program”.
- More than 85% of fishing community has been educated on the lifecycle and ecological importance of sea turtles.
- More than 2,150 tribal people have been educated to stop poaching sea turtles.
- Trained More than 17,000 artisanal fishers on ‘Safety at Sea’ under various programs conducted by the Foundation.
- Research data archived for the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.
- Presented precise data for endangered species recovery program for the States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha Coasts including: numbers of nesting turtles; success ratio of hatchling emergence; mortality of sea turtles; and rescued/rehabilitated turtles.
- More than 48,000 people have been taken on guided turtle walks and hatchling-release programs as part of alternative income generation programs for coastal communities.
- Rescue/rehabilitation of 47 adult and juvenile Olive Ridley, 7 juvenile Green and 5 Hawksbill turtles and two Spinner dolphins.
- Rescued, untangled and released 927 Olive Ridley Green and Hawksbill Turtles from fishing nets (ray-fish and gill nets and ghost nets).
- About 1,41,212 kgs of ghost net retrieved by fishermen and handed over to the TREE Foundation through an incentive program supported by the CSR grants.
- TREE Foundation is the first NGO to conduct Turtle Excluder Device trials in association with the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology (CIFT), and independent trials with trawl fishers at Chennai fishing harbor.
- Mission Sea Turtle, a one day workshop to propose viable solutions and strengthen networks to mitigate sea turtle mortality and protect associated ecosystems was conducted for the first time in Chennai (Tamil Nadu) and Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh). The workshop brought all the enforcement agencies, Indian Coast Guard, Forest, Fisheries and Coastal Security Police of the respective states under one roof for integrated law enforcement and protection related response.
- The Mission Sea Turtle Float reached out to 41 schools in Chennai, covering 35,975 students, 3,100 of general public, and 16 fishing villages along the coast of Tamil Nadu and 5,637 people in 112 fishing villages and 4 harbours along the Andhra Pradesh coast thus covering about 11,378 fishers.
- Recorded the stranding of marine mammals along the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh coasts
- Through MECR program, planted 560 saplings in Nellore, 1,200 in Prakasam, and 350 saplings plus 2,500 seedlings in Bapatla restoring one hectare
Senior Sea Turtle Protection Force Member winning India's most inspriring Eco-Sapiens 2020 Award
India Biodiversity Award 2018
Bhoomika Award 2018
