“We spotted the carcass of the whale this afternoon near Sumatinagar in Sagar Islands. We retrieved it and sent it for post mortem. It looks like the one we rescued and released recently. We released the whale near the Sagar islands. But we cannot say for certain. Only after a post mortem report we can ascertain whether it is the one,” said Nisha Goswami, DFO, South 24 Parganas while speaking with 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.

On January 2, villagers in Kakdwip, South 24 Parganas district had spotted a whale stuck in a narrow creek and due to low tide the whale could barely move. The forest department officials rescued the whale, which was 15 to 18 ft long, after much toil and later at around 1AM on January 3, it was released near Sagar islands after 18 hours of its rescue.

According to sources it is likely a Bryde’s whale that are smoky blue-grey in color with long slender bodies. They spend most of their time alone or in pairs, though larger groups have been sighted feeding together. They are found in every ocean in the world. However, they limit their travel to within tropical, sub tropical and temperate waters.