NAGAPATTINAM: Twenty-five fishers landed in Nagapattinam after spending nearly a month at sea during the ongoing lockdown. They were stuck in the sea as they were unable to cross the Palk Strait due to closure of the Pamban bascule bridge.
The fishers hail from Nagapattinam and Ramanathapuram districts. They are deep-sea fishers who spend 10 to 15 days in the sea seeking out tuna in gillnetter-longliner boats. They were stuck after they missed the opening of the Pamban bascule bridge near Ramanathapuram on April 3."We were waiting next to the bridge and hoping it would be opened for us. We did not have enough fuel to circle around Sri Lanka and reach Nagapattinam. We waited it out in the cold waters for 11 days until it opened on Tuesday. We then rushed home," said S Veeraiyan (26), from Thittacheri.
The bascule bridge is a part of Pamban bridge. The bascule bridge opens once a month. It is the only route for vessels travelling to South India and passing through the Palk Strait. If the vessels miss the opening, they have to turn back and circle thousands of nautical miles around Sri Lanka. According to sources, the bascule bridge was scheduled to open around April 5, but opened a couple of days earlier.
Of the 25 fishers, 18 are from Akkaraipettai, Keechankuppam, Nagore and Thittacherry villages while seven are from Ramanathapuram district. They were fishing in two vessels - Kesavan and Yazhini - in the Arabian Sea when the lockdown was announced. They departed from Kochi in Kerala on the third week of March and least expected a lockdown. "We realised that going back to Kochi and then travelling back to Tamil Nadu by road would not be possible during the lockdown.
There were no buses from Kerala to Tamil Nadu, so we rushed to Pamban to catch the opening of the bridge. We missed the opening by a couple of days and were left stranded mid-sea next to Pamban," said R Kumaran (43), from Nagore.
Their families pleaded with the Nagapattinam district administration to open the bridge to let the fishers through. As per the request of the Nagapattinam district administration, the Ramanathapuram district administration arranged for the opening of Pamban bascule bridge on Tuesday. "We were running out of rations and barely survived on the supplies we had on the boats. We are happy to be back home," said K Sivakumar (42), from Nagapattinam.
The fishers have been sent to home quarantine. "All fishers are well and asymptomatic for coronavirus. We are quarantining them to ensure they remain the same," said a senior Fisheries department official.