Achievements & Awards

Highlighted achievements of TREE Foundation to date:

1. Released more than 51,83,508 Olive Ridley hatchlings (baby turtles) successfully to the
2. Successfully satellite tagged 2 Olive Ridleys and 1 Green turtle, becoming the first ever NGO in India to satellite-tag
3. Trained and developed Sea Turtle Protection Force of over 411 members from 285 fishing villages along 808 Kms of Coastline
4. 7,040 artisanal fishermen provided intensive training in sea turtle conservation through hands–on workshops.
5. More than 7,429 officers 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
6. More than 4,06,622 fishing community members have undergone marine mammal awareness programs developed and conducted by the TREE Foundation.
7. 3,260 trawl boat owner association members are involved in the strategically designed step-by-step plan developed for the voluntary implementation of TEDs.
8. TREE Foundation, in cooperation with the fishermen, has placed ‘How to Safely Release Turtle’ stickers on 4,230 boats covering almost all trawl/mechanized boats available in and around Chennai.
9. Trained more than 5,755 teachers by conducting annual teacher
10. Educated more than 3,03,352 students through various awareness activities conducted in more than 500 schools & colleges enrolled under “TREE Foundation Ocean Guardian School Program”.
11. More than 85% of the fishing community has been educated on the ecological importance of sea
12. More than 2,150 tribal peoples have been educated to stop poaching sea
13. Trained more than 17,000 artisanal fisherson “Safety at Sea” under various programs conducted by Foundation
14. Research data archived for the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Goa.
15. Presented precise data for endangered species recovery programs 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
16. More than 50,632 people have been taken on guided turtle walks and hatchling-release programs as part of alternative income generation programs for coastal communities.
17. Rescue/rehabilitation of 47 adult and juvenile Olive Ridley, 7 juvenile Green and 5 Hawksbill turtles and two Spinner
18. Rescued, untangled and released 995 Olive Ridley, Green, Hawksbill Turtles, Sharks and Marine Mammals from fishing nets (Ray-Fish, nets set for squid and Gill nets).
19. About 2,17,655 kgs of ghost net retrieved by fishermen and handed over to TREE Foundation through an incentive program supported by CSRs.
20. TREE Foundation is the first NGO to conduct Turtle Excluder Device trials in association with CIFT, and independent trials with trawl fishers at the fishing harbour in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
21. 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.
22. The Mission Sea Turtle Float reached out to 41 schools in Chennai, covering 35,975 students, 3,100 of the 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
23. Recorded the stranding of 14 different species of marine mammals along the Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh
24. Restored 1,600 mangroves plantation in degraded areas along Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.