The Western Indian State of Maharashtra, with a coastline of 720 km has 30,000 hectares of mangroves, a third of which is in the metropolitan city of Mumbai and its suburbs. The Provincial Government of Maharashtra set up the Mangrove Cell in January 2012 for protection of the mangrove ecosystem. Despite teething troubles like staff shortage and financial constraints, the Mangrove Cell succeeded in increasing the mangrove cover of Maharashtra by 63% (from 186 sq. km in 2013 to 304 sq. km in 2017). To ensure sustainability of its mangrove protection efforts, and marine biodiversity conservation initiatives under its two externally aided projects (supported by UNDP-GEF and GIZ), the Mangrove Cell created the “Mangrove and Marine Biodiversity Conservation Foundation” of Maharashtra. From the interest generated on its corpus of about USD 20 million, the Foundation finances the conservation of its mangroves, two Marine Protected Areas and a host of marine conservation programmes.