A 30-ft-long dead whale that was washed ashore at Mumbai’s Juhu beach Friday. PTI Photo
Mumbai: A gigantic Bryde’s whale, approximately 40 feet long, which washed ashore on Juhu beach here around midnight, drew huge crowds even as authorities made efforts to clear it Friday.
Officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), forest department and police, besides veterinarians, are engaged in the gigantic operation to remove the whale’s carcass safely.
A BMC official said the whale, which had no external injuries, may have died in the Arabian Sea in the past 48 hours and then been washed ashore late Thursday night. Though the carcass has not degenerated, it has become bloated with water and gas, making the task of disposing it challenging, the official said.
Two hydraulic cranes have been deployed by BMC to lift the carcass onto a container van and take it to the outskirts of Mumbai for safe disposal.
The estimates of the whale’s weight ranged between three to five tonnes and it is among the biggest mammals that have washed ashore on the state’s coastline in recent years. In June 2015, a 42-feet-long Blue Whale had washed ashore on Revdanda beach in adjacent Raigad district.
Police had a tough time controlling the thousands of curious citizens and tourists who had trooped in to Juhu beach for a glimpse of the gigantic mammal and even attempted to click selfies with the dead whale from different angles. IANS