2nd time in 45 days; another whale carcass found on Puri beach

Puri: Barely one and half months after, another carcass of a whale measuring around32 feet long was found washed ashore on Puri beach on Monday.

Heavy crowd was witnessed near Panth Niwas to see the dead sea mammal. It is suspected the mammal died after being hit by ship or vessel in the deep sea and was washed ashore due to heavy current of the sea caused by southern winds from tomorrow.

Forest officials reached the spot after being informed by the visitors and recovered the body of marine mammal. “It seems the whale has been dead for past several days. Stale smell is emanating from the back side of whale while face of the marine creature is in good condition. We will conduct post-mortem to ascertain the reason behind the death. JCB machine has been hired to lift it from the beach to bury it”, Bhimsen Das, a forest official said.

He said the veterinary college doctors have been requested to conduct an autopsy to establish the reason of death.

On February, 16 the carcass of 40 feet long whale of same species was found at Balukhanda beach in Puri. As many as five such cases have been reported in last 11 years, sources said.