Carcass of endangered whale found on Odisha shore

Berhampur (Odisha), Dec 10 (PTI) The carcass of an endangered Bryde's whale washed ashore near the border of Puri and Ganjam districts of Odisha, an official said on Friday.

The 48-foot-long female whale was buried near the shore on Friday after conducting a post-mortem examination. The exact cause of the death will be known only after getting the autopsy report, Range Officer Narasingh Behera said.

Local fisherfolk said they had found two whales - one male and the other female - near the coast on Wednesday evening and it appears that the carcass is of that female one which got stuck in the sea bed due to low water level.

The carcass was found on the shore on Thursday and the authorities and volunteers had a tough time keeping locals away from the area as a large number of people gathered there to see it.

Anil Mohapatra, in charge of the Estuarine Biology Regional Centre (EBRC), Gopalpur, under the Zoological Survey of India, said the forest department would be requested to preserve the skeleton in a museum for research purposes.

“We have collected tissue samples from the carcass of the whale for DNA analysis,” Mohapatra said.

He said carcasses of Bryde’s whale were earlier found in Ganjam and Puri districts of Odisha, besides the Digha coast in neighbouring West Bengal. PTI CORR HMB NN NN