Mumbai: Carcass of dolphin-like mammal washes ashore near Gateway of India
Officials from the state mangrove cell said that civic body officials were alerted around 3pm by locals from the area about the mammal that had been spotted, washed ashore on the rocks on Sunday afternoon.
Marking the second mammal death in 2017, the carcass of a three-foot-long finless porpoise washed ashore opposite Taj Hotel, Nariman Point at south Mumbai on Sunday.
Porpoises have smaller mouths and spade-shaped teeth as opposed to dolphins that have prominent, elongated beaks and cone-shaped teeth. Also, a doplhin has a curved dorsal fin while a porpoise has a triangular dorsal fin.
Officials from the state mangrove cell said that civic body officials were alerted around 3pm by locals from the area about the mammal that had been spotted, washed ashore on the rocks on Sunday afternoon.
“The mammal’s body was completely decomposed but did not have any injury marks on it,” said Makarand Ghodke, assistant conservator of forest, state mangrove cell. “The body was transported to the Bombay Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA) by 6pm on Sunday.”
He added that a post-mortem will be conducted on Monday morning, following which the exact cause of death can be understood. “However, since the body is so decomposed, it will be very difficult for veterinarians to ascertain the exact cause of death,” said Ghodke. “It seems that the mammal might have died at least 10 days ago.”
The porpoise death marked the second such incident in Mumbai in 2017 after a five-foot-long dolphin carcass had washed ashore at Nariman Point on January 1 around 1.30am. Mangrove cell officials said that the exact cause of death was not known, but the dolphin had several marks on its head, almost as if it had lost direction and hit a hard surface of a ship or rock several times.
Over the past two years, close to 30 dolphin carcasses, six whale carcasses and a few finless porpoises have washed ashore along the Mumbai and Maharashtra coast due to unknown reasons.
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