Thiruvananthapuram: After almost four months since Cyclone Ockhi fishers have found a boat in the sea with all the crew missing. Fishers from Vallavilai in Kanyakumari found Annai, the boat, 467 nautical miles off the coast.
Thirteen fishermen were onboard, and it's for the first time a boat swept away in the cyclone getting spotted in the deep sea. Fr Peter Darwin, the priest at Vallavilai St. Mary’s Church, rues that if the Navy had deployed submarine when the tragedy had struck, many lives and boats could have been rescued.
Soosai Adima, 38, and half a dozen fishermen from Vallavilai had ventured to Lakshadweep to catch shark a few days back. On their return trip, Mr Adima and his team saw a submerged boat, on March 20 at 11:30 am.
He said his heart skipped a beat and few young boys in his fishing boat swam towards Annai. “The submerged boat must be eight to nine feet high, and the front tip can be seen above the sea water," he told DC.
"We were scared to go underneath the sea as we didn’t have an oxygen mask. The 13 fishermen from Vallavilai and neighbouring parishes were in Annai who might have perished.”
Annai belonged to Sibi and Tadeus of Vallavilai who had bought it for more than Rs 30 lakh. But it's unimaginable for them to retrieve their boat from the deep sea as there is a huge risk involved. Fr Peter said the service of Navy divers could have utilised, which would cost Rs 10 lakh, and once Annai is brought to land, another Rs 25 to Rs 30 lakh would have to be coughed up to repair the engine and the boat.
“We understand that the boat was not floating across the sea. Instead, it was stuck underneath, and with the sea becoming turbulent with rough winds, Annai somehow came up," he told DC.
"I strongly believe that if the Navy had come up with a submarine during the rescue mission, scores of boats like this and lives of fishermen could have been saved.”
Cyclone Ockhi had claimed 144 lives from border Vallavilai and seven other parishes under the Latin Catholic Archdiocese of Thiruvananthapuram. Only 12 bodies of fishers belonging to Vall-avilai, Neerodi, Martha-ndanthurai, Eraviputh-enthurai, Chinnath-urai, Thoothoor, Pooth-urai and Erayumanth-urai were recovered.
