A 33-foot-long dead whale washed ashore near the Bateswar Temple adjacent to Kantiagada village under Ganjam block on Wednesday.
The whale is suspected to have died in the deep waters of the Bay of Bengal after being hit by a ship. Brahmapur Divisional Forest Officer Asish Kumar Behera along with other officials of the department rushed to the spot and began their investigation.
No decision has been taken whether the dead mammal would be preserved or buried. “We have communicated with the officials of Regional Museum of Natural History, Bhubaneswar whether to preserve the skeleton of the whale as earlier also a whale was preserved at the museum. We would take a decision after getting response from them,” a forest official said.
Notably, this is the third such incident where a whale has washed ashore at the Ganjam-Gopalpur coast.
In April 2007, a gigantic dead mammal measuring around 45 feet was spotted along the Gopalpur coast. Another dead whale of nearly 32 feet was also found later in May that year.
On Wednesday, scores of people rushed to the beach to witness the sight. They were dismayed to see the bleeding whale with multiple injuries on its body.