The skeleton will be exhumed after six months.
THE 35-foot whale that washed ashore at Juhu in January this year, drawing an unruly crowd of onlookers, is now set to be showcased by the forest department as the largest mammal skeleton so far in Mumbai at the Marine Biodiversity Centre in Navi Mumbai.
The whale currently rests at Juhu beach near Vile Parle, guarded by a forest officer, and will be exhumed after its complete decomposition.
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“The skeleton will be exhumed after six months. The bones and the skeleton structure will be put together at the site where it will be exhibited,” said N Vasudevan, Chief Conservator, Forests.
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Bunty Rao, Head of Baywatch Life Guard Association, recalls seeing the dead whale on January 28 and thinking it was some “balloon-like animal”. “At about 6 pm that day, people sensed a foul smell from the sea. Two lifeguards were sent to check what exactly was in the waters. When they were about 500 metres away, people realised it was a whale,” said Rao.
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Next day, the whale was lifted by a crane and loaded into a huge trailer. About 100 kg of salt was put on its body, a five-foot deep pit was dug, and the mammal buried under the sand. According to a local, over 15 people were involved in the task of burying the whale.
According to Santosh Gaikwad, a taxidermist who has been assigned the task of showcasing the whale, the process will involve restructuring the bones and providing external support. “The process will take a long time. We are first waiting for the whale to decompose entirely, as it will become tedious for us to remove so much flesh,” he said. After it is exhumed, the bones of the whale will be cleaned, degreased and then bleached. The bones will then be mounted at a height by welding and drilling, Gaikwad said.
Weeks before the Juhu incident, 45 pilot whales had been beached in Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu. A 42-foot whale had also washed ashore at the Revdanda Coast, about 17 kilometres south of Alibaug, in June last year.
“These whales could have died from old age, parasitic infection, consumption of plastic or pollution. Also, increased noise levels in the ocean, human intervention and tests conducted for oil exploration cause problems,” said Vasudevan, adding that there is a need to build up network for rescue and rehabilitation of marine wildlife. “We also need mechanism to conduct their autopsy for research purposes,” he added.
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Forest dept to showcase whale beached at Mumbai’s Juhu in January
Source: Indian Express