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In a first in country, beached whale rescued in Dapoli

According to chief conservator of forest (CCF) and head of Maharashtra mangrove cell, N Vasudevan, the locals spotted the whale grappling in the shallow water on Monday around 8am.

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Activists and locals try to push the whale into deep waters
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In what is being believed as the first-ever live rescue of a whale in the country, a 40-feet blue whale that got stranded after being washed ashore in just three-feet shallow water near Koltre village along the Dapoli coast was pushed back into the deep sea on February 1.

According to chief conservator of forest (CCF) and head of Maharashtra mangrove cell, N Vasudevan, the locals spotted the whale grappling in the shallow water on Monday around 8am. "The mission to rescue this whale began and soon Abhinay Kelaskar and Mohan Upadhyay, working under the Indo-German (GIZ) Project with the mangrove cell in Konkan, rushed from Velas. Along with the help of NGO Shayadri Nisarg Mitra and locals, the rescue operation began," said Vasudevan.

He informed that attempts were made to push the whale into the sea as several people stood braving the waves but soon the team of rescuers realised that pushing the mammoth 20-tonne whale manually was impossible. "The team decided that they could not waste more time and the best option was to drag it back into the sea using boats. Soon, two boats were brought and ropes were tied. The whale was dragged into the sea till deep waters and was released around 5pm in the evening, after a back-breaking nine-hour mission," said Vasudevan, lauding the team effort.

While this might sound like a happy ending, officials are still a worried lot. "This is the second incident in a week, after Mumbai saw a 37-feet Bryde's whale washed ashore on Thursday. It's a big relief that this one was rescued in time and it survived. But it seems there is something wrong. So we have alerted the fishermen to keep a close watch on the shore. In case they find whales or any other marine creature washed ashore, they have been asked to alert the authorities immediately," said Vasudevan, adding that the locals have also been put on high alert.

As per officials, it was in 2012 when a carcass of a 39-feet Humpback whale was washed ashore along the Dapoli beach. The locals had to finally set the remains on fire after two days, due to the foul stench. The mangrove cell has already initiated baseline studies and rapid biodiversity assessment of the sanctuary area with assistance from the Indo-German (GIZ) Project on "Conservation and Sustainable Management of Marine Protected Areas (CMPA)".

Pradip Patade of NGO Oceans, who has been documenting the marine species found along Mumbai, said, "It was a great relief to know that this whale could be saved by proper efforts being put by the team. They should certainly be awarded for carrying out such an operation. Also, the state government should initiate some kind of research to find out what is leading to such instances."

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