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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New Delhi: In response to the Supreme Court's scrutiny over the size of its previous public apology, Patanjali Ayurved has issued a second, more prominent apology, signed by Yoga guru Ramdev and Patanjali’s managing director Acharya Balkrishna and acknowledging the ongoing legal matter before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India.

The apology expresses regret for any non-compliance or disobedience of the court's directives and extends apologies for holding a meeting/press conference on November 22, 2023. It also acknowledges mistakes made in publishing advertisements and expresses commitments to not to repeat such errors. Furthermore, the apology reads that Patanjali is commited to abiding by the court's instructions with utmost sincerity and upholding the majesty of the law.

On Tuesday, the court had directed senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Patanjali, to “cut out the ads and then supply it to us” without enlarging. “We want to see the actual size. This is our direction… we want to see that when you issue an advertisement, it does not mean we have to see it with a microscope,” the court said.

Patanjali had previously assured the court of refraining from making any misleading statements or advertisements against allopathy. However, subsequent actions, including a press conference by Ramdev and an advertisement issued by the company, led to a contempt notice being issued to Ramdev and Balkrishna for violating their undertaking.