Another boat tragedy in Kerala claimed 22 lives last week. The boat in question was not even meant for tourism purposes. If media reports are accurate, it was an old fishing boat bought for a dirt cheap sum of Rs 20,000, given a coat of paint and dressed up as a cruise boat in an unlicenced yard. It had built an upper deck illegally. It didn’t have a licence or a fitness certificate, but had been operating for the last two weeks, carrying as many passengers as possible until it sank in its last fateful trip.
The boat had a carrying capacity of 22, but had taken around 40 people on board. As per the rule, all cruise boats in Kerala should stop operating at 6 pm, with a few exceptions in some backwater locations. The ill-fated cruise started at 6.50 pm, after sunset. There were not enough life jackets, most passengers did not bother to wear one, and there weren’t lifebuoys. To top it all, the boat captain was inexperienced and had no sailing licence. Considering all these, it is a miracle that the boat operated for two weeks without capsizing.
As usual, the politicians expressed shock, and the government announced a compensation of a few lakhs for the deceased. Celebrities made appropriate noise, and the media did extensive coverage and blamed the bureaucrats, government machinery and greedy houseboat operators—in short, everything that usually follows a public tragedy in India unfolded to the time-tested script. This is the ninth such tragedy in Kerala in the past 20 years, claiming many lives. It isn’t just Kerala that had such accidents—overloading cost 103 lives in the Brahmaputra river in Assam in April 2012, and 19 lives were lost in Haryana in 2017 in a similar tragedy. Over 50 lives were lost in the Kolohi River in Assam in 2015, 23 in the Ganga River in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 and another 25 in the Banda boat tragedy in the state in 2022. This grim list is incomplete, but enough to show a pattern. We don’t care about rules.
Boat tragedies are one of many man-made disasters that happen with sickening regularity in India. Bridges collapse, theatres catch fire, and buildings crumble. If you live in a high-rise, kindly check when the last fire audit was done and how effectively. Please check whether the fire extinguishers work or are there for decorative purposes. Chances are that you will be shocked and will suffer sleepless nights thinking about your family’s safety in case a fire breaks out. Better not to check and believe in divine intervention. Those with the guts to check it out may perhaps agree with a heartbreaking prediction I am making now.
I wish this would not come true, but sooner rather than later, a major fire will claim many lives in a high-rise in one of our metros. Many cities have permitted multi-storey buildings where no fire-fighting trucks can reach. We will find that the mandatory fire-fighting system was defunct, and the city fire department didn’t have enough fire tenders or hydraulic lifts that could help them fight it. We will also discover that permission for the high-rise was given, flouting all norms. Ministers will express shock and use our tax money to compensate unfortunate victims, and the media will raise a hue and cry for a few days and compete for TRPs and advertisement money. Nothing sells as much as a tragedy.
A few government officials will be suspended—the official name for a paid vacation in government parlance—and will use their time effectively to advance their side business. If it is an election year, a few retired judges will get some employment and crank up hundreds of pages in reports that no one will bother to read and will become fodder for the rodents that infest our dusty government offices. Life will go on as usual in a few days. Has anything changed even when many lives were taken away in bridge collapses, boat tragedies, buildings gutted on fire or dams ruptured? Isn’t this a holy land where everything functions ‘Ram-bharose’ (God’s mercy)? We are the most populous country in the world, so life comes cheap. Therefore, no need to wear that seatbelt while driving with a mobile pressed to an ear on the wrong lane or bother about the life jacket when getting into that overcrowded boat. Until it happens to us, every tragedy is just a statistic. So brace for another tragedy to unfold in another part of the country.
If you and I or any of our loved ones are lucky not to be a victim of it, we can shake our heads in dismay, spend some voyeuristic time watching live footage, curse and rant about politicians and corrupt bureaucrats, and then go and vote based on caste, religion and regionalism.
Anand Neelakantan
Author of Asura, Ajaya series, Vanara and Bahubali trilogy
mail@asura.co.in