A 40-foot juvenile blue whale that locals and forest officials shoved into the water is left stranded on a Maharashtra shore, unable to find its way back.
Yesterday, the blue whale washed ashore in the Ratnagiri district. In an attempt to save its life, the local forest officials pushed it back into the waters, but it was unable to find its way back and came back to the shore.

Upon the failure of all attempts to return it, the officials turned to the Indian Navy for assistance. The infant animal’s chances of survival appear slim, even though a Navy helicopter is scheduled to arrive in the evening for the rescue mission.

With a maximum length of more than 90 feet, blue whales are the biggest animal species on the planet. This year, numerous reports of whales washing ashore have been made.

In August, all attempts to save and return a Bryde’s whale calf to the ocean in Surat, Gujarat, were unsuccessful after it washed ashore twice in two days.

That was one month earlier when a blue whale washed up on a beach in Srikakulam, Andhra Pradesh. Five tons was the weight of the 25-foot whale, according to local reports.