Chennai: The efforts to search and rescue stranded fishermen continued and on Wednesday the Indian Coast Guard ship rescued 12 Kanyakumari fishermen off Kochi coast. With this a total of 624 Indian fishermen besides 5 Sri Lankans stranded due to Cyclone Ockhi including 233 TN fishers have been rescued till Wednesday.
Asserting that there has been no let up in Operation Sahayam, the ICG said on Wednesday that its ship rescued 12 fishermen on a stranded fishing vessel belonging to Kanyakumari district, 40 nautical miles at sea off Kochi. All the rescued men were provided food and fresh water and the vessel was towed to safety. The ICG even posted photos of the fishing craft on its official microblogging site.
Also, 13 fishermen on the Kerala registered fishing boat were rescued at 30 nautical miles at sea off Mangalore coast. “@Indiacoastguard ships at sea off #Andaman & #Nicobar Islands experiencing rough to very rough sea & heave reported 3-4 high waves with 25-30 knots of strong winds. Advisory issued to fishermen not to venture out. CG ships and aircraft kept on standby mode@defenceMinIndia,” another tweet said.
As per the updated fact-sheet put by the Indian Navy, Indian Air Force and ICG, involved in Op Sahayam, as on Dec. 6 a total of 624 fishermen including 233 from TN and 361 from Kerala besides 5 from Sri Lanka were rescued since Nov.30.
“#CycloneOckhi Response @IndiaCoastGuard further augments the Rescue units at sea off #TamilNadu & West Coast as #Ockhi converts into low pressure area & moves up North. 22 ships and 05 Aircraft pressed into service for Search & Rescue Operations @DefenceMinIndia @SpokespersonMoD,” yet another tweet stated declaring that the search and rescue operation would continue.
