Dead dolphins washing up on Mumbai shores aren't unique: Over 100 such incidents since 2015, says expert

A month after a 40-foot Bryde whale was found ashore Juhu beach in Mumbai, three dolphins have been spotted dead on three different shores of Mumbai in the past 24 hours, reports Hindustan Times. The bodies of the three Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphins were found on Tuesday and Wednesday. In the first incident, a 6.5-foot-long dolphin was washed up on the Gorai beach and it was sent to the Bombay Veterinary College for post-mortem reported  The Indian Express. According to Hindustan Times, the dolphin did not have any visible injuries on its body. [caption id=“attachment_2654190” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Dead dolphin washed ashore. Image credit: Twitter/sudhakar ‏@naidusudhakar[/caption] The second incident took place in Vasai where locals found the 10-foot dolphin on Wednesday morning and they immediately reported it to the authorities. According to a report in  DNA, a resident from Vasai’s Bhuigaon village, Rohit Tandel was the one who reached the spot first and who informed the local authorities. He added that the dolphin’s carcass was covered in tar and it smelt of petrol. Sources in the forest department were quoted by Hindustan Times as saying that the third dolphin had washed ashore at Girgaum Chowpatty beach at 5.30 pm on Wednesday. Pawan Sharma, 23, founder and President at Resqink Association for Wildlife and Welfare (RAWW) told Firstpost, “A very basic problem with our system is that we don’t have a standard operating procedure for the rescue or response of these washed-up mammals. It is very crucial to do an immediate autopsy of these marine mammals to find the exact cause of their death, otherwise the bodies start to decay. Usually the ground-staff does not have an autopsy team or a field veterinary doctor to do the requisite procedure.” Sharma claimed that there have been some 100 cases of washed-up marine mammals that have gone unnoticed since 2015. Last year, at least three dolphins were reported to be found on different beaches of Mumbai. The increasing frequency of dead mammals found on the shores is a worrisome matter for environmentalists. There could be various causes for the death of these mammals — climate change, poaching or pollution.