Raigad: Humpback Dolphin spotted leaping in a creek in Amba river

Raigad district continues to be in the eye of news with unexplained incidents of marine mammal sightings cropping up almost every week in the region.

Merely four days, after the locals of Revdanda village cremated the 20-tonne carcass of the 42-feet-long Blue Whale, another marine creature found itself stuck in a creek at a nearby area.

A Humpback Dolphin measuring almost 7-8 feet in length was spotted leaping in the shallow waters of the creek in the Amba river, in Nagaothane region of the district. 

According to locals, the dolphin strayed into the waters alongwith the high tide in wee hours of Wednesday morning and then got stuck in the creek.

Explaining what made the dolphin swim into the creek, Range Forest Officer (Alibaugh) HB Patil said that, dolphins prey on small fishes and crustaceans, which at times forces them to swim up-channel.

"At times they enter creeks and channels of rivers to hunt fish, shrimp, prawns and other shell fishes. We assumed that, this dolphin swam via the Dharamtar channel into the creek during high tide and then found difficult to swim back in the shallow waters of the low tide," Patil told dna.

Meanwhile, the news of the trapped dolphin spread like wild fire via social networking sites, as over thousands of locals and tourists hounded onto the banks of the creek to catch a glimpse of the mammal. 

Image courtesy: Team iamin

Buses, cars and other vehicles driving from the bridge over the creek made stops to witness the leaping dolphin - which received cheers and whistles every time it surfaced.

Over two dozen policemen were then pressed to patrol the banks and manage the crowd, which at times would pelt stones into the water in attempts to force the dolphin to surface.

Local fishermen threw small fishes and shrimps into the creek, to help the dolphin survive as forest officers were pressed into action - to guide it back into the open sea.

Several attempts made by Patil and his team by creating a raft made of bamboo hung from three boats to push the dolphin in deeper waters of the channel failed - as the dolphin refused to swim ahead due to shallow waters.

Until high tide in the midnight bloated the creek with fresh sea water, making it easy for the rescue team to guide the trapped dolphin into the sea, which readily followed the raft.

"The dolphin was successfully drifted into the open sea at 2am on Thursday. We also spotted a pod of four to five dolphins swimming close to the mouth of the Dharamtar channel - which could have come to rescue the trapped dolphin," Patil said, adding that this was for the first-time that, a dolphin had swam so deep into a creek and got stuck.