The carcass of an adult female whale shark was washed ashore near the Pamban rail bridge in Rameswaram on Tuesday.
On being alerted by the local people, a team of forest personnel, led by S. Sathish, Forest Range Officer, Mandapam, pulled the carcass to the shore and buried it after post-mortem.
Mr. Sathish said the adult whale shark weighed about 3.5 tonnes and measured 18 ft in length. Whale sharks were on the endangered species list and protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972.
It had injuries on the tail portion and could have died three days ago after colliding against a rock or a fishing vessel. During post-mortem, a plastic spoon was found in its stomach, he said.
Pointing out that the whale shark was one of the only three known shark species that filtered the feed, the presence of a plastic spoon in its belly should serve as warning to people who threw plastic material on the seashore.
Found in tropical and warm temperate seas, this was the third whale shark to be washed ashore in the Mandapam and Pamban region. The carcasses of two such whales were found washed ashore in Kunthukal area in September 2016 and on May 7. Both inhabited the Gulf of Mannar and the latest could be either from the Gulf of Mannar or Palk Bay, MrSathish said.