In an unfortunate incident, a blue whale was found washed up and dead on the beach of Meghavaram village in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh on Friday. Videos and photos of local villagers playing and examining the whale's carcass have gone viral on the internet.
In the clip shared on the microblogging site Twitter by a person called Krishnamurthy, one can see several people surrounding the carcass and inspecting it. Women and some children can also be seen among the crowd that is surprised to see the giant marine mammal wash ashore. A few can also be seen taking pictures of the whale.
Based on the morphological characteristics and certain identification markers, it has been determined to be a Bryde's whale, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forests Shanti Priya Pande told news agency PTI.
Bryde's whales, also known as tropical whales, possess three prominent ridges in front of their blowhole while their bodies are sleek with slender and pointed flippers, Pande further noted.
The exact cause of death of the beached whale is not yet known. However, local fishermen say the whale might have died because it got trapped in shallow waters.
This comes at a time when coastal Andhra Pradesh is witnessing heavy rainfall for the past few days. According to India Meteorological Department (IMD), some of the coastal areas in the state have recorded moderate to heavy rainfall in the last 24 hours.
The low pressure area over west-central and adjoining northwest Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh and south Odisha coasts continues to persist, and is yet to aggravate into a depression, the IMD stated in its weather bulletin.