Chennai: A steel boat registered in Chennai with nine people on board went missing after it weighed sea anchor off Marina coast when destructive cyclone Vardah made its landfall in the city on Monday. Sources said theboat bearing registration TN 02 MM 1887 sailed into the sea on December 3 and established contact with its owner last on December 12 around 11.50 am.
The conversation indicated that the boat had weighed sea anchor a few nautical miles off Marina after sighting the lighthouse. Boat driver Raviselvan conveyed that they would sit out the strong gusts when Vardah was making its landfall near Ennore.
Thereafter, there was no means of communication between the boat and its owner. The crew on board the boat using gillnet includes Rajendran, Nirmal Raj, Anthoy Raj, Maatha Vel, Rajesh, and Vinod, from Chennai, and two other fisherfolk from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh.
The boat’s ration will give the people on board sea stay of a maximum 20 days. Jayaraman, the boat owner, had sought the help of Coast Guard, which was trying to locate the boat using its GPS tag. A complaint had been lodged with fishing harbour police and as well as with fisheries department.
They were fishing deep in the waters off Chennai coast instead of the waters off Vizag coast where they usually fish since the weather forecasts suggested that path of the storm was heading to AP, said Jayaraman. “But the paths changed and our boat got stuck. Two other boats that came later in the evening of December 12 also weighed sea anchor. They drifted nearly 80 nautical miles and made it to the harbour 36 hours later. We believe that our boat must have drifted much further, and could have even reached the Sri Lankan coast,” he said.
M.E. Raghupathy, president, Chennai Visaipadagu Meenavar Nala Sangam, appealed to the state to expedite the process of search and rescue to save the fishermen.
