Dolphin carcass washes ashore at Mumbai beach

The decomposed carcass of a five-foot Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin washed ashore Versova beach late Monday night.

Officials from the state mangrove cell said the body was so decomposed and mutilated that a post-mortem could not be conducted. “Morning walkers and joggers at Versova informed us about the dolphin. Most of its internal organs had spilled out of the body. We had no option, but to bury the dolphin at the beach itself,” said Makarand Ghodke, assistant conservator of forest, state mangrove cell.

This is the third case of a dolphin carcass washing ashore Versova in the past two months, and the 86th marine mammal death along the coastline of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region since 2015.

Meanwhile, on Monday, mangrove cell officials transported the skeletal remains of the 43-foot blue whale that had washed ashore Uran, Navi Mumbai, last Thursday to the marine mammal museum in Airoli using a freight trailer. On Monday, the 10m (32ft) skeleton and 2.5m (8.2ft) head and jaw of the mammal were transported using excavator machines and a 40-ft freight trailer. “Hundred labourers, 30 police and forest officers helped in transporting the bones of the mammal. Mumbai will now have the preserved skeletal remains of the world’s largest mammal, which will boost research studies related to marine mammals along the Konkan coast,” said Ghodke, adding, “The number of marine mammal deaths in Mumbai is on the rise. There is no clarity on the reason. We are pushing for speedy construction of a marine mammal rescue centre at Juhu.”

Earlier this month, HT reported a study by the Maritime Research Centre, Pune, which found increasing sound levels in Indian seas from the rising ship traffic, could be a reason for whale deaths. Other possible causes were polluted coastlines, plastic trash, deaths caused by injuries from collisions with large vessels, among others.