Carcases of whales found scattered on Tamil Nadu coast in India

More than 70 whales have been found dead scattered along the coast in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu over the past two days, officials said on Thursday.

The whales were found washed ashore on the Manapad beach in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin (or Thoothukudi) district.

"On Wednesday, we found 81 whales scattered on the beach, out of which 45 were dead and 36 were alive," Thiru P Issack Jayakumar, Assistant Director of Fisheries posted in Tuticorin, told Xinhua via phone.

"We pushed the 36 living whales back inside the deep sea immediately using mechanised boats but today again we found 28 carcases."

Jayakumar said the rescued whales beached themselves back, and of them remaining eight whales seem to have survived.

Locals said the carcases along the shore presented a shocking spectacle, with people thronging the beach to watch it.

R Jayabhaskaran, senior scientist at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, said these pilot whales might have lost direction and got disoriented.

"These are actually dolphins commonly known as short-fin pilot whales. Since they live in groups and follow each other, we found their mass stranding along coast," Jayabhaskaran said.

"There is possibility they have followed a whale which got disoriented either due to sickness or after some collision with some vessel or the group at large might have got disorientated due to an earthquake and lost their sense of direction."

Tuticorin coast has witnessed a similar incident in 1973.

Jayabhaskaran said whales were found beached in Andaman and Nichobar in 2012.

The cause of the deaths of these mammals however remain unexplained.

Authorities from the fisheries department said they have ordered an investigation into their deaths.

"We have taken samples and are investigating the reason behind such deaths," P. Mohanasundaram, joint director of Fisheries, said.

The dead whales were buried near the shore at Tuticorin, locals and officials said.

A nuclear power plant is located at a distance from the coast, where whales were found washed off.

Reports said the investigations would try to found out if environmental pollution could be a reason behind these deaths. Endit