‘Sea cow’ carcass found off Porbandar coast

Earlier,bodies of dugongs have been sighted in the Gulf of Kutch,but never before in Porbandar.

Only recently,the state submitted a recovery action plan for the mammal to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).

While forest officials in Porbandar say the carcass is quite small,officials in Gandhinagar have asked for its photographs so that herpetologists can identify it.

“Initially,we thought the carcass must be of a dolphin because Porbandar coast is not a known habitat of dugong. Also,it was small,about one metre long. It was swollen,and was about 4 to 5 days old. Luckily,it was not putrid. We took about 10 pictures from different angles and I am sending it to Dr Bharat Pathak,the director of the Gujarat Ecological Education and Research,or GEER,Foundation,” said Lalit Parmar,Deputy Conservator of Forests,Porbandar.

The carcass was found on the Chowpati coastline,near Porbandar town,about two weeks ago,he said.

Since 1978,17 bodies of dugongs have been found in Gulf of Kutch. No live sightings have ever been reported. None have been sighted,dead or alive,outside the Gulf or its immediate vicinity.

In the western coast,bodies of dugong have been sighted only in Gujarat although much larger populations exist off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Tamil Nadu.

The last dead dugong found off Gujarat was a female at Bet Dwarka in 2010. Earlier in 2007,a body was found in the same area.