Giant carcass of whale found on Andaman shore

Port Blair, Apr 27 (UNI) A 35-40 feet long carcass of a whale has been found on the shore on Neil Island, which has been attracting the attention of thousands of islanders, who are continuously coming to the beach to see the huge dead whale.

The body of the whale, which was first noticed yesterday by an islander, got trapped in thick mangroves and corals, located at the Neil Islands beach.

Neil Island, a small inhabited island, is situated 36 km northeast of Port Blair.

''Local fishermen initially thought it was an old dugong, the state animal of these islands,'' Arup Kumar Roy, a villager of Neil Island said.

It was not clear what species the whale belonged to or how it died.

''There is no visible mark of injury on its body but some villagers are now taking away the teeth of the dead whale as mementoes,'' a villager told UNI today.

A team of experts is expected to visit the island tomorrow but the officials of the Andaman Fisheries department refused to confirm the report.

Migrating whales are sometimes sighted in the Bay of Bengal off the Andaman coast, but rarely come near the shore, experts and witnesses said.

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