KARAIKAL: Two fishers have been reported missing after a mechanised boat from Karaikal sank mid-sea allegedly due to overloading after it embarked on its first fishing trip since Cyclone Gaja.
The trawler from Kottucherry in Karaikal departed on Friday and sank in the Bay of Bengal on Saturday. Eleven fishers were rescued by the crew of a nearby boat. Fishers from 10 out of 11 fishing villages in Karaikal district had gone out to sea on Friday for the first time after Cyclone Gaja as the administration did not entertain their demands for a survey of unregistered boats.
A 20-metre-long trawler belonging to K Arockiaraj of Kottucherry headed southeast of Nagapattinam on Friday night. The fishers were reportedly getting huge catches of fish in the area on Saturday night, some 35 nautical miles from shore. As a load of fish was being hauled in, ropes connected to the trawl net through the pulley on the boat frame became stuck in the main pulley drum on the deck. The boat’s holds were almost full. Unable to take any more load, the boat started to sink. The fishers panicked and tried to cut the ropes in the frame, but it was too late. The boat then keeled over.
K Arockiaraj, M Pradeep, K Suman, P Paneer, R Sakthivel, G Saravanan, V Bhaskar, C Ganesan, A Sivakumar and S Gopal managed to grab a few life jackets and swam towards another boat some 200 metres away. Two fishers - G Neelavannan and R Santhosh – were reported missing. While the rescued fishers have returned to shore, search operations for the missing duo are on.
Karaikal district fishers are unhappy with the treatment received during boat inspections after cyclone. They had protested against registered boats not being surveyed and the alleged assumption that mechanised boats are also not taken into account when checking damage.
Speaking to Express, S Murali, a fisherman representative from Kilinjalmedu, said, “The tragedy could have been prevented if the administration had inspected the condition and seaworthiness of all boats without discrimination post the cyclone.”
T Kaviarasan, Joint Director, Fisheries department, told Express, “We have initiated a search operation with the help of the Indian Coast Guard and even an aerial search. There were more crew members on board than the number of lifejackets. We are trying our best.”
Overloaded
As a load of fish was being hauled in, ropes connected to the trawl net got stuck in the main pulley drum. Unable to take any more load, the boat started to sink. Fishers tried to cut ropes in frame, but the boat keeled over.