A highly decomposed carcass of a whale was found washed ashore at Bharathi Nagar seashore near Erwadi on Tuesday.
On being alerted by local forest watchers, who were on a morning patrol, a team of forest officials led by Forest Ranger S. Ganeshalingam inspected the carcass and buried it on the spotas post-mortem could not be conducted.
Veterinarian Sakthivel from Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, who inspected the carcass, said post-mortem was not possible as it was highly decomposed.
An on-the-spot investigation revealed that it was a young Baleen whale and could have died about 20 days ago, he said. He, however, collected samples for laboratory examination.
Mr. Ganeshalingam said the tail portion of the whale was missing and the carcass was around six metres in length. The circumference could not be measured and the sex of the whale also could not be ascertained, he said. The marine mammal could be one-and-a-half years old and the cause of death was also not known, he added.
This was the second carcass of Baleen whale being washed ashore in the region. The carcass of a giant whale, weighing about 16 tonnes was found washed ashore near the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) Hovercraft Station (south) at Mandapam in April last year.
