The body of a nine-feet long Gangetic dolphin was found near the Kidderpore docks on Monday morning. The postmortem report said the mammal was pregnant.

Police handed over the body to the state forest department after which it was sent for postmortem. The report confirmed that the dolphin had suffered from internal haemorrhage. Dismissing the possibility of any foul play behind the death, the wildlife wing of the state forest department claimed that the death was caused after the dolphin came beneath the propeller of a ship and got hit.

“It is very difficult to say how the dolphin came so near the shore. Usually Gangetic dolphins are found in the Ganges. But there is nothing illegal or suspicious about the incident,” said Nalini K Misra, Additional Wildlife Warden of the state forest department.

After the postmortem, the wildlife department kept the foetus to preserve it within its premises.

“The dolphin was pregnant. Though its body was buried, we will preserve the foetus with formelin at our centre in the state forest department,” said Misra.

Though the animal does not belong to the category of rare species, officials said they will preserve the foetus because it is difficult to find the foetus of a dolphin.