In one of biggest mammal rescue operations in the country, a 47- feet- long blue whale was rescued from the sea shore and put back into deep waters, after it beached itself on the shore near Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Maharashtra’s Ratnagari district on Sunday, says a report in Hindustan Times.
Reportedly, the whale was lying at the shoreline for over two days before being spotted by local fishermen who then alerted the forest officials. The 8 hour long rescue operation involving 50 personnel, that included four forest officials, local NGOs and fishermen of the area, was carried our using ropes during high tide.
After being rescued whale sped back into the sea. In a statement to HT, Mihir Sule, member of Konkan Cetacean Research Team, said that large whales cannot support their body weight on land as their bodies may crumble under their own weight.
(Feature image source: Twitter/ @ChatterjeeBadri)