In an effort to recuse beached or stranded marine animals, the state-run Mangrove and Marine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation has set up a rescue centre at Airoli in Navi Mumbai, reported The Indian Express.

The response unit at Airoli’s Coastal and Marine Biodiversity Centre is equipped with one 1,000 litre tank, five 500 litre water tanks, an operation table, medicines, medical equipment, and visiting veterinarians. The centre will be inaugurated on July 26, the International Day for Conservation of Mangroves.

While the facility will initially cater to smaller marine animals like sea turtles, it will, later on, expand its help bigger marine animals.

At present, there is only one make-shift centre at Dahanu in Palghar district to rescue beached marine animals along the west coast. According to officials, as the incidents of beaching grew higher on the city’s shoreline in the past few years, there was a need to fast-track response mechanisms.

‘The centre will help in providing timely response in cases of stranding, especially along Mumbai’s shoreline. It will also ease the burden on the Dahanu centre. Once we receive information about stranding, parallel information will be sent out to veterinarians closest to the spot to examine whether the marine animal has an injury or a health condition or will be deployed to the centre. More such centres are planned in Sindhudurg and Ratnagiri districts,’ Virendra Tiwari, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (Mangrove Cell) and executive director of the foundation, told the media.

88 beaching incidents have been reported between 2015 and 2018, with 32 recorded in 2018 alone. The stranded dead marine animals include dolphin, porpoise, turtle and whale along the Konkan coast.

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