KOCHI: As many as 250 fishermen, on board 20 fishing vessels, reached Kochi on Sunday from Lakshadweep Islands even as the search and rescue operations by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard for the missing continued for the eleventh day. The fishermen, who were rescued from the high seas, had been camping on the Lakshadweep Islands for the last few days.
While 41 are Keralites, the others are from Tamil Nadu (189), Assam (14), Odisha (five) and Andhra Pradesh (one). A team of Revenue Department officers and an official delegation from Tamil Nadu -- both camping in Kochi -- oversaw the arrangements, including financial assistance for their journey to native places. Nine fishermen were admitted to the Ernakulam General Hospital after they complained of uneasiness. They were discharged after getting primary medical care.
Indian Navy officers said more fishing vessels would reach Kochi in the coming days. Another vessel Rehmath, which had sailed from Kochi, was located safely on the return passage, 130 nautical miles north-west off the Kavaratti coast.
Authorities are yet to trace the location of 28 of the 120 vessels which left the Thoppumpady Harbour before the onset of the cyclone. “All of these boats, which are on a multi-day fishing expedition, are safe and are expected to be located off the Goa coast,” said Fisheries Deputy Director S Mahesh.
41 of the fishermen who landed in Kochi on Sunday are from Kerala
Coast Guard recovers three more bodies
T’Puram/Kochi: Coast Guard vessels found three more bodies from the Arabian Sea on Sunday. The Indian Air Force flew three sorties in the Indian Ocean region in a bid to locate missing fishermen.
Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink…
When Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote ‘The Rime of the ancient Mariner’, little would he have thought the words would best portray the scene in distant Kerala almost two centuries later.