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Tough task for dolphin researcher

Sib Kumar Das

DANKALPADU (GANJAM DIST.): After toil of over one month, the dolphin researcher of Chilka Development Authority (CDA), Muntaz Khan, could

retrieve the skeleton of the massive whale carcass that had drifted to Ganjam coast near Dankalpadu last month.

Pieces of the retrieved skeletal remains of this female whale were transported from Dankalpadu on Friday to marine museum of CDA at Satapada in Puri district to be reassembled and preserved. Around 150 bone pieces of the skeleton could be collected. Bones of tail portion of the carcass had been lost at sea due decomposition.

Size assessment

Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Khan said the dead female whale was of 12.5 meter in length which is equivalent to the longest female whale recorded by Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in Indian Ocean. The size of it can be assessed from the fact that its skull is eight feet long.

As per the initial findings it was a mature one which had died natural death. Study of its intestinal remains revealed that it had not eaten for days before its death for some reasons.

It was a hard task for Mr. Muntaz and his associates from CDA to retrieve the whale skeleton, which was done for the first time on the Orissa coast.

He thanked the CEO of CDA, Sudarsan Panda, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), S.P. Mohanty and the Berhampur Divisional Forest

Officer, S.N. Mohapatra for their timely help for this scientific preservation endeavour. People of Dankalpadu village especially small children proved to volunteers in this hard process.

Children helpful

Children got together to help Mr. Muntaz load the skeletal remains on the truck on Friday morning.

Harsh summer sun and the carcass remaining at the high tide zone was a major problem to dissect it and retrieve its skeleton. On May 15 the half recovered skeleton was once washed away into sea by high tide.

The skeletal remains of the whale had to be recovered from a distance of 200 meters inside sea from sea coast. Mr. Muntaz says although removal

of skin, body fat and muscles were long processes yet the most tiring job was to remove the tendons that bind the skeleton inside the body.

It took more than seven days to remove the tendons so that the skeleton could be separated to be cleaned up for transportation.

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