Carcass of Indo-Pacific Dolphin Found Washed Ashore in Mumbai

Fishermen say a lot of mammals have been dying at the sea on accord of plastic bags getting stuck to their bodies.

File photo of a baby dolphin left on the beach after it dies. (Photo: The Sun)

The carcass of a seven-foot long dolphin of the Indo-Pacific humpbacked species was found washed ashore at Gorai beach in Mumbai, on Thursday afternoon.

Hindustan Times quoted Ankit Vyas, a volunteer for the forest department as saying:

Owing to the body being heavily mutilated, we were unable to carry out a post-mortem. We buried the carcass at the beach where it was found on Thursday evening.

The fisherman who spotted the Dolphin said that a lot of mammals have been dying at the sea on accord of plastic bags getting stuck to their bodies.

This was the fourth such incident reported in 2016 and the total number of reported cases increased to 12 over the past year.

Wildlife activists pointed out that the wildlife authorities haven’t responded to the numerous letters sent to them regarding reports of such deaths.

While N Vasudevan, who is the chief conservator of forest, state mangrove cell said:

At the moment, we do not have the required expertise to deal with instances of mammal deaths. However, along with veterinarians and experts from abroad, we have begun training local fishermen, villagers and forest officials to conduct post-mortems and file conclusive reports for causes of mammal deaths across Maharashtra.

Read the full story on Hindustan Times.