30 dolphins washed ashore in Thoothukudi coast in TN; 4 dead

As many as 30 Dolphins washed ashore near Punnaikayal village in Thoothukudi district on Monday evening while four of them found dead. This is the first incident of dolphins washing ashore in such large numbers in the state.

The dolphins were spotted on the shallow waters of the sea struggling for their life by fishermen at around 6 pm on Monday.

S Loga Sundaranathan, Forest Range Officer of Tiruchendur in Thoothukudi district said that out of the 30 dolphins, about 15 of them were too close to the shore and they were struggling for their life. “With the help of the local fishermen, we tried to drag them into the deeper part of the sea but some of them kept coming back to the shore. We continued the rescue operation till early hours of the day. Except for the four female dolphins that washed ashore dead, the rest of them pushed back into the sea,” he said.

The forest official said that dolphins which normally found in the deeper water might have accidentally entered the coastal water where the depth ranges from five to six meters. 

“We don’t know what the reason for the dolphins to wash ashore is. Only after the post-mortem, we will know the cause of the death and washing ashore,” the official told DNA.

This is the second major incident of big sea mammals being washed ashore in the district in less than two years and the first involving the dolphins. On January 11 last year, 83 pilot whales had washed ashore in the same village but were taken back to the sea. However, they have washed ashore again leaving all of them dead the following day. In January 1974, around 70 pilot whales had washed ashore at Manapad in Tuticorin district.