Sea this: 5 endangered humpback dolphins sighted near Vasai coast
MUMBAI: In a rare sighting, a tourist guide spotted five endangered Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphins near Rajodi beach off Vasai coast on Sunday.
The state mangrove cell identified the species, protected under schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
“A pod (group) of nine dolphins has been spotted at various locations along Mumbai’s coast from Gateway of India, Elephanta Caves, Versova and Madh jetty going all the way towards the Thane creek end, and this sighting might be of the same pod,” said N Vasudevan, additional principal chief conservator of forest, state mangrove cell.
“We have initiated a fiveyear-long study using noise monitoring instruments at sea to understand the behaviour and habitat of these species, which will in turn tell us why they are moving closer to the coastline.”
Nikhil Tandel, the tourist guide who spotted the dolphins, said this was the first time the mammals were seen near Vasai coast.
In 2017, the dolphin was classified as endangered by the
International Union for Conservation of Nature.
These dolphins usually live in shallow, coastal waters, which put them at high risk of getting entangled in fishing nets. A tally of 94 marine mammal deaths, majorly comprising humpback dolphins, has been recorded along the Mumbai coast between 2014 and 2018. However, there have been no reports of dolphin carcasses washing ashore in 2019 so far.
On January 20, runners during the 16th edition of the Tata Mumbai Marathon were pleasantly surprised as they spotted a pod of Indian Ocean Humpback Dolphins off the Mumbai coast along the Worli Sea Link.
Experts said it was a rare sight but the rise in dolphin movement was indicator of turbid waters along the city’s coastline.
“Dolphins are known to withstand high turbidity in search of food. These are good documentations if these species are coming close to the coast. Increased monitoring, protection and population assessment studies are needed,” said E Vivekanandan, former chief scientist and national consultant, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute.
(inputs from Badri Chatterjee)
MUMBAI: The prosecution, before a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Tuesday, examined employees of the travel agency through which various flight tickets were booked for Indrani Mukerjea, accused of the 2012 murder of her daughter Sheena Bora, and others after the murder.
The first witness to be examined was Julian Paul, employee of Mystic travels Private Ltd. It was through Mystic travels that Kajal booked Indrani’s ticket for Goa as well as her and Peter’s ticket for Goa after Sheena was murdered.
According to the list provided by Paul to the investigating agency, Kajal had booked a ticket for Indrani. On April 21, 2012, Kajal had booked a ticket for Indrani for Kolkata dated for April 25, 2012. A day before that, Sheena was killed. The said ticket was however cancelled. Further, the day before the murder, Kajal had booked a ticket for Indrani from Mumbai to Goa and the travel date was April 28, 2012. The said ticket too was cancelled. Later on the day when Sheena was killed – April 24, 2012 — Kajal had again booked a ticket for Indrani to Goa on April 29, 2012. That ticket too was cancelled. Finally, a ticket was booked on April 26, 2012. Kajal booked Indrani’s ticket for Mumbai to Goa dated April 28, 2012.
According to the prosecution’s case, Indrani along with the other accused – Shyamwar Rai and her former husband Sanjeev Khanna — had killed Sheena Bora on April 24 and dumped her body next day. The same day she had travelled to Kolkata with Khanna. Her tickets were cancelled as she later booked her ticket with Khanna. It is claimed that Indrani was in Kolkata for two days after Sheena’s murder. After returning from Kolkata, she travelled to Goa with Peter.
After Paul, the prosecution examined employee of Gayatri tours and Travels, Munira Rangwala. It was claimed that Kajal used to book tickets through Gayatri travels when the office of INX media was in Thane.