NEW DELHI: About 40 whales died in a mass stranding on the west coast of India’s remote North Andaman island in the Bay of Bengal, wildlife officials said yesterday.
“The short-finned pilot whales were found by fishermen who alerted us and investigations show it was a case of mass stranding,” said Ajai Saxena, a wildlife official in Port Blair.
Saxena said no previous mass stranding had been reported in the Andamans, but that it was a natural phenomenon that occurs when whales get disoriented and are unable to swim back into deep water.
Emergency teams headed to the beach near Elizabeth Bay on the North Andaman island where the whales were stranded, but they were unable to help. A post-mortem has been conducted on one of adults, which weighed 2 tonnes. AFP
