At least 45 of 81 whales have died after stranding on a beach in the Indian southern state of Tamil Nadu. The short-finned pilot whales washed ashore on the beach of Tiruchendur, a small port city in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin district on Tuesday.
Deepak Bilgi, wildlife warden of the Gulf of Munnar Marine National Park, in charge of the stranded whales, said that the remaining whales were pushed back to the sea with a few returning back. "The older ones that succumbed to injures returned but the younger ones responded well," Bilgi said. "Scientists investigating say it is disorientation. However we have sent one of the whales for autopsy".
M. Ravi Kumar, the top official of the Tuticorin district, also inspected the beach where the whales were stranded. "This is the first time since 1973, when 120 whales were stranded, that such an incident has happened here," Kumar told DPA news agency.
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