A 17.38-ftl-ong mature Gangetic dolphin was washed ashore on the Laxmipur sea beach in Bakkhali on Sunday early morning.

Fishermen spotted the mammal, gasping for life then, and informed forest department officers. But it died before help could arrive. The carcass was later taken (in picture) to the Bakkhali forest range headquarters, where an autopsy was conducted to ascertain the cause of the death.

Gangetic dolphins fall under Schedule I of the Indian Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, and are declared an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Divisional forest officer (South 24-Parganas) Milan Kanti Mondal said: “The cause of the death could not be immediately ascertained. The mammal was quite aged and could even have died of natural causes.”

Sources in the forest department said the corpse was cremated after the autopsy.