ANIMAL BEHAVIOR: Migratory Patterns And Disaster Precursors - 28-Feet-Long Dead Whale Found In Ratnagiri, India?!

File photo.

February 11, 2016 - INDIA - A 28 feet long dead whale was washed ashore on the remote rocky coast of Aagari village of Dapoli taluka in Ratnagiri district.

The dead whale was spotted on Wednesday night, said N Vasudevan, chief conservator of forests, in charge of marine bio-diversity.

The whale species is yet to be confirmed.

This is the third incident this year when whale have been washed ashore. While the whale at Juhu too was dead and the body washed ashore, at Dapoli, a blue whale that had come close to the shores, was directed back into the sea by local forest officials and villagers. At Juhu the body was buried in the sand.

Vasudevan said the site where the dead whale was found is rocky and difficult to reach. "We have collected tissues to ascertain the cause of the death but will not be able to bury it,'' he said. He said there was also no expertise to conduct a post-mortem.

"The body was highly disintegrated which indicates that it had died in the sea," he said. - The Times of India.

PLANETARY TREMORS: Two Moderate Earthquakes Rattles Gujarat, Maharashtra in India!

Two earthquakes of mild intensity shook parts of Maharashtra and Gujarat today, but there were no reports of any casualty.

A quake measuring 5 on the Richter scale was experienced in parts of western Maharashtra at 10.50 am. Its epicenter was Goshatwadi village, about 10km from Koyana dam in Satara district, the Met office here said. An aftershock of 4.4 magnitude was registered an hour later, it said. The Koyna dam, situated in a quake-prone region, is safe, officials said. The tremors were also felt in several parts of Mumbai, Satara, Sangli, Kolhapur, Pune, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts.

There were no reports of any damage to life or property, they added. A quake, measuring 4.1 on the Richter scale, was felt at 8.55 AM in parts of Gujarat. The earthquake had its epicenter at Vamka taluka in Kutch, which is an active fault line, scientists at Institute of Seismological Research said. An aftershock measuring 2.9 was also felt, they said. Besides Kutch district, tremors were experienced in parts of Saurashtra region. No loss of life or damage to property has been reported so far in Gujarat, officials said. Among those who felt the tremors in Mumbai were megastar Amitabh Bachchan, who resides in suburban Juhu. “Earthquake in Mumbai ! Did you feel it...I did...Shutters and building shook twice for few seconds,” Bachchan tweeted. - Indian Express.