In a tragic incident, a blue whale was found washed ashore off the Bay of Bengal at a beach in Srikakulam district on Thursday. It was found at the Meghavaram village in Santhabommali Mandal, reported The News Minute.
It is estimated that the whale is about 25 feet long and weighs around five tonnes.
Videos of locals examining the whale’s carcass have gone viral on social media.
Based on the morphological characteristics and certain identification markers, it has been determined to be a Bryde’s whale, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Shanti Priya Pande told news agency PTI. The real cause of the whale’s death is yet to be ascertained.
Local fishermen say the whale might have died because it got trapped in shallow waters, and it is rare for a blue whale to be stranded on a beach in the southern state.
The blue whale is the largest animal on earth, weighing as much as 200 tons (approximately 33 elephants). The blue whale has a heart the size of a Volkswagen Beetle. It is marked as an endangered species.
The incident comes at a time when Andhra Pradesh is experiencing heavy rainfall. According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), eight places in Andhra Pradesh, including Srikakulam, received 7cm rain in the past 24 hours. Fishermen have been asked not to venture into the sea squally weather with wind speeds reaching up to 45-55 km per hour and also gusting up to 65 kmph are likely over west-central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal.
In May last year, a gold-painted chariot washed ashore along the Sunnapalli coast in the same Santhabommali Mandal, with officials saying that it was washed up from Thailand or Myanmar due to the high tidal waves caused due to Cyclone Asani.