Puri: Carcasses of hundreds of jellyfish, the aquatic animal-form, were washed ashore along the sea beach in Odisha’s Puri town. Carcasses of a large number of Olive Ridley sea turtles were also reported to have been found on the beach, leaving visitors baffled in the tourist town.
As per reports, the local fishermen and tourists first spotted the swarms of dead jellyfish on the beach on Monday. The sight of the jellyfish carcasses triggered a panic among the locals as well as the tourists feared to go to the beach on the day fearing toxic content of the sea animal.
The incident comes barely a fortnight after hundreds of jellyfish washed ashore at Gopalpur beach in Odisha in the last week of March.
Tourists from different parts of the country and abroad who have thronged the seaside town demanded quick steps to clean up the beach and maintain hygiene in the area.
While the exact reason behind the jellyfish swarming the beach is yet to be ascertained, locals suspect that the jellyfish might have died due to some natural phenomenon in the sea and later washed ashore.
Experts were of the view that jellyfish swarming is a natural event and thousands of them wash ashore on many sea beaches across the globe. The reasons vary from pollution in sea to cyclonic storms.
It may be noted that in similar incident took place on Puri beach 2 days before Cyclone Yaas made landfall in Odisha on May 24, 2021.
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