A whale has been rescued by the forest department from a sandbank of the Hooghly river near Kamarhat in Kakdwip, around 87km south of Kolkata.
Over the last two days, the whale was spotted in the shallow regions of the Hooghly and Muriganga rivers, drawing attention from the South 24 parganas forest department.
Residents of the Ghoramara Island noticed the enormous creature stranded on a sandbank on Wednesday evening. In an attempt to save it, locals tried pushing the whale back into the river. However, it reappeared yesterday in Madhusudanpur and Kamarhat areas of Kakdwip. Locals reported the incident to the forest department.
Anurag Choudhury, assistant divisional forest Officer (ADFO), led a large team to the site.
After hours of effort, the whale was successfully transported back to the Bay of Bengal, where it will soon be released into the deep sea.
“This species typically resides in deep waters, for some unusual reason it ventured into these rivers.” Choudhury said.
The sighting of a whale in the region is unprecedented…forest officials are looking into the causes that might have led to this unusual event.