Local people discovered the stuck whale on Thursday morning. It was low tide and the whale could barely move. They subsequently alerted the forest officials.

“We got information in the morning about the whale getting stuck in the narrow creek. We sent our teams which reached the spot. By then, it was high tide and we could not go near it. Later, in low tide, our teams approached it. When there was high tide, we guided it out of the creek using boats, and then at 1 am today (Friday) we were able to release it in deep waters,” said Nisha Goswami, DFO South 24 Parganas, to The Indian Express.

“The exact species of the whale could not be identified but it was around 15 ft to 18 ft long. We have sent pictures of the whale to the Zoological Survey of India to ascertain the species,” said Goswami.

According to Forest department sources, villagers in the Ghoramara Islands forest had spotted the whale in another creek three days ago. The local people somehow pushed it into deep waters. However, it got stuck in another creek.