A 47-foot long blue whale was rescued from a beach in Maharashtra and successfully put back into the deep waters on Sunday, after locals and fishermen came together to help.

The whale, weighing around 20 tonnes, had drifted into shallow waters, and washed ashore near near Madban village, close to Jaitapur nuclear power plant in Ratnagiri district.

"It appeared emaciated and must have drifted some days ago. But since this is an isolated spot, it was spotted on Saturday and we were informed by the locals," said N Vasudevan, chief conservator of the mangrove conservation cell.

50 ft. Beached Blue #Whale rescued by village in #India. Team work & #compassion save the day. Great Job pic.twitter.com/3PZGsU7Xbg Daniel Schneider (@BiologistDan) September 11, 2016

Vasudevan believes that considering the "sheer size of the mammal," Sunday's rescue is "the biggest rescue of beached mammal in history."

Rescue operations began early Sunday morning, and boats and fishing nets were used to lead the whale back into deep seas. The operation involving 50 people lasted six hours.

This is the second successful rescue of a blue whale in the same region. A 40-foot long whale was rescued in Ratnagiri in February this year in a nine-hour long operation. Here's a video of the rescue:

Not all rescue operations have been successful, however.

In August last year, a 42-foot long blue whale washed ashore in Mumbai's Alibaug, but didn't survive despite an 18-hour long operation. The whale collapsed on its body weight (their bodies cannot support their weight on land) and died a few hours after beaching.

In January this year, a 40-foot long whale was beached for 17 hours and could not be rescued. Its carcass washed up at Juhu beach, where it was ultimately burnt and buried.

The blue whale is the largest mammal in the world. It falls under the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1986.

Last year, researchers identified 569 dolphins in Sindhudurg during 2014 and 2015, adding that the numbers could be even higher. Later, in February this year, Maharashtra announced plans to set up rescue centres for whales and dolphins in coastal districts after increasing cases of beached whales along the state's shores.

(With inputs from PTI)

