The men succeeded in putting the stranded dolphin back into the sea.
Two good Samaritans in Odisha saved an Irrawaddy dolphin that had washed ashore by putting it back into the sea. The incident took place at Puri district's Beleswar beach on Tuesday morning. Video of the rescue was taken by a passerby.
Subhendu Mallik, Honorary Wildlife Warden of Khordha, tells NDTV that he was informed about the stranded dolphin by Sribatsa Pattanayak, who filmed the video, at around 10 am today, when he saw the two men on the beach with the dolphin.
"He was passing by and was attracted by the activity on the beach," says Mr Mallik. "He informed me about it and I asked him to ask the men to keep pushing the dolphin back into the sea until forest officials arrived."
Mr Mallik then informed the Divisional Forest Officer of Puri Wildlife, Harshabardhan Udgata, who rushed his staff to the spot.
By the time the forest officials arrived, the men had already succeeded in putting the dolphin back into the sea, without causing any harm to the animal.
"What is commendable is that the youth never mishandled the dolphin for selfies or photographs, like it
happened in Spain last year," said Mr Mallik to NDTV. "I asked Mr Pattanayak to shoot and thus we got an excellent rescue video."
The rescue video shows the dolphin swimming away, and Mr Mallik says that a man has been deployed to keep watch in case the mammal returns.
Watch the video below:
(Video courtesy: Sribatsa Pattanayak)
via GIPHY
Praising the rescue effort of the men, Mr Mallik says, "If you look at the video, they never try to show any bravado which could have stressed the dolphin out."
The Irrawaddy dolphin is similar to the beluga in appearance, though most closely related to the killer whale. Their populations outside Bangladesh and India are classified as critically endangered.Click for more
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