Kanyakumari: The State Fisheries department is still unable to confirm the exact number of missing fishermen and boats in the Ockhi cyclone that wreaked havoc in Kanyakumari district, as many of the fishers who had ventured into the sea from fishing harbours in next-door Kerala.
It is usual for the Kanyakumari fishermen to go for fishing from the nearby harbours of Kerala like Neendakara fishing harbor near Kollam and Munambam harbor at Kochi in Ernakulam district.
“Around 40 per cent of the deep sea fishermen in the west coast prefer doing fishing from the Kerala harbours as they cover the wedge bank extending from Colachel to Kollam in the Arabian Sea,” said a Fisheries department official, who added, “It is this lot of fishermen, who ventured into sea from Kerala coast are missing now.”
Moreover, responding to the general allegation that Kanyakumari district Fisheries department do not have the exact number of fishermen who went for fishing that led to the mismatch of the officially stated number of missing fishermen and the number claimed by the fishermen's community, the department official on condition of anonymity said, they usually maintain records only for the fishermen who take diesel token from the four harbours within the district and based on that record the state government had issued the first report. “We are now coordinating with the Fisheries department to get the exact number,” said the official.
The state Fisheries minister, Mr. D. Jeyakumar, who visited the bereaved fishermen's families on Sunday said, of the total number of 1,229 mechanised vessels registered in Kanyakumari district, 945 have safely returned.
Quoting the official report of Tamil Nadu State Disaster Management Agency (SDMA), the minister said that 23 boats with 260 crew have been safe at Myria Bandar, Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra, adding, the government has received information about the safe landing of 159 boats at various harbours in the states of Kerala, Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat.
“As of now 97 fishers are missing from Kanyakumari district and the joint search and rescue operation of the Navy, Coast guard, Airforce and the local marine police have been intensified to find those missing men,” Jayakumar added.
Of the 39 country-craft reportedly missing from the district, he said six have reached the shores safely and search for the remaining 33 are underway. Kanyakumari district has a total of 5,859 registered country-craft.
