2,500 dead seals found on Russia's Caspian coast
Moscow, Dec 4: About 2,500 seals have been found dead on the Caspian Sea coast in southern Russia, officials said Sunday.
Authorities in the Russian province of Dagestan said it was unclear why the mass die-off happened but that it was likely due to natural causes.
Regional officials initially reported Saturday that 700 dead seals were found on the coast, but the Dagestan division of the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment later raised the figure to about 2,500.
Zaur Gapizov, head of the Caspian Environmental Protection Center, said in a statement that the seals likely died a couple of weeks ago. He added that there was no sign that they were killed or caught in fishing nets.
Experts of the Federal Fisheries Agency and prosecutors inspected the coastline and collected data for laboratory research, which didn't immediately spot any pollutants.
Several previous incidents of mass seal deaths were attributed to natural causes. Kazakhstan, which has a long Caspian coastline, reported at least three such incidents this year.
Data about the number of seals in the Caspian vary widely. The fisheries agency has said the overall number of Caspian seals is 270,000-300,000, while the Caspian Environmental Protection Center put the number at 70,000.
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Bus owner Saif Athrady murder: KCOCA case registered against six accused, says Udupi SP
Udupi: A case under Karnataka Control of Organised Crimes Act, 2000 (KCOCA), Section 3, was filed against six people under suspicion of their involvement in the alleged murder of Saifuddin Athrady (Saif), owner of private bus company MKMS at Kodavoor under the Malpe Police Station limits on September 27.
The arrested accused in the case are Muhammad Faisal Khan (27), resident of colony near Mission Compound in Udupi; Muhammad Sharief (37) of Karamballi; Abdul Shukur (43) of Krishnapura; Khan’s wife Ridha Shabana (27), and Mali Muhammad Siyan (31) are under judicial custody.
The primary accused in the murder, however, is reported to be absconding and hiding on foreign soil.
Udupi Superintendent of Police Hariram Shankar has said that the names of all six accused, including that of the missing, have been cited in the case registered under KCOCA Section 3.
