Chennai, Jan 12: Around 120 short-finned pilot whales have washed ashore in Tamil Nadu’s Tuticorin district, with rescuers taking at least 36 of the mammals back to sea on Tuesday.
Thirty-one whales, however, died despite the rescue efforts, a rescue official said.
The whales began washing up on beaches around 600 km from Chennai on Monday night, the member of a combined rescue team of the Tamil Nadu departments of fisheries, forest and civil administration and police told Hindustan Times.
Local fishermen have also been roped in to help the whales – each weighing between 1 tonne and 1.5 tonne and measuring between 8 feet and 10 feet. The whales came ashore during a low tide and could not return to deep sea owing to a high tide, the official said.
Ten fishing boats and one mechanized boat are making sorties, each ferrying one whale at a time, to deep sea.
“We have saved some 60 animals so far,” another rescue official said.
