The 30-feet long highly decomposed carcass of a blue whale, which washed up near the Elephanta cave on Wednesday, disintegrated into pieces while pulling it into the sea before taking it ashore for burial.
The dead mammal weighed 7 tonnes and was one of the rarest cases where a marine carcass of this size washed up near the island instead of the Mumbai shore, making it immensely difficult to dispose it, said the forest department.
Forest department officials and localites gather to help dispose the giant mammal | FPJ
Carcass stench was a priority issue for the forest depart
The carcass of the largest mammal in the world, the blue whale, washed up near the Elephant cave, the famous tourist spot which is a collection of cave temples predominantly dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva, located 10 kilometres east of Mumbai. The stench of the carcass filled the air of the tourist spot which made it a priority for the forest department to dispose of the dead animal at the earliest.
As this was an uncommon case and there was no appropriate equipment at the disposal of the forest department at the island, it became a huge challenge for the team to analyse the situation and plan accordingly, said Range Forest Officer (RFO) N Kokare. "My team has disposed of whale carcasses before, but for the first time in my life I encountered such a difficult case in which we had to use the available resources and complete the operation. We formed a team of 15 people along with the help of a few locals and tied the dead mammal with ropes and attached it to two boats, to pull it till the shore."
'Whale must’ve died a natural death around 30-40 days ago', say officials
"The carcass was in a precarious and decomposed condition because of which we had to handle it very carefully, however while pulling the carcass using ropes, there was a slight blast due to the acids formed in the stomach of the whale and it disintegrated into pieces and sank to the bottom of the sea. Some of the pieces were afloat and in case it reaches ashore, we will bury it," added the RFO.
The forest department team along with the locals persevered from 12 pm on Wednesday till late afternoon in midst of the heavy stench of the decomposed animal to dispose it off at the earliest. The forest department also added saying that they suspect that the whale must’ve died a natural death around 30-40 days ago, however is was very difficult to confirm it due to the high level of decomposition, added the department.
