After 53 long days, there was some cheer in Kasimedu fishing hamlet in North Chennai, on Monday. Information about the whereabouts of ten fishermen, who went missing on July 23, reached their relatives in the hamlet. The fishermen were rescued in Myanmar waters and taken to Sittwe port.
The boat driver informed the owner of the boat, Balaji, on September 14, that they were rescued by the Myanmar Coast Guard. The state government told the families that the fishermen will be brought back to Chennai in the next three to four days.
The families of the fishermen are relieved and happy. “I was worried all these days. We did not have any information about them,” said Amala, wife of one of the fishermen, Desapan. Amala is six months pregnant and has been worried all these days.
Regardless of the the good news, the worrying factor is the inability of the state government to trace the missing fishermen, despite possessing the necessary infrastructure, until the Myanmar Coast Guard rescued them in the international waters. “This is the normal procedure. We alerted the neighbouring countries, including Myanmar, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Burma. We informed the Navy and the Coast Guard to search for the missing boat and the fishermen. If they had been in our sea limits, we could have easily rescued them,” Fisheries Minister D. Jayakumar told THE WEEK.
The search operations
The fishermen associations had staged protests, demanding the state government to expedite the search operations, and the government had written to other countries over the issue. The families of the ten fishermen would come to the fisheries department office almost every day, asking for updates, but in vain.
The boat that left the shores on July 23 was to come back within 15 days. “The motor did not work. It was repaired, but the boat got stranded in deep sea,” said Ku Bharathi, president of South Indian Fishermen Welfare Association. According to Bharathi, the motor stopped working in the 47 East point 44 North point.
The boat, with registration number IND-TN -02-MM-2029, got stranded after some repair works, three days after it went to the sea. “It was only 10 nautical miles from our shores. The driver contacted the boat owner with the transponder on it. We were able to hear them, but they could not hear us. The engine was working till that day evening,” Bharathi said.
Infrastructure to locate fishermen in distress in deep sea
Incidentally, the policy note tabled by minister Jayakumar in the state assembly states “ensuring safety, security and well-being of the fishermen,” as its vision and “develop economic prosperity and ensuring safety and security of fishers,” as its mission. Tamil Nadu fisheries department boasts itself as one of the well-equipped in the country with around 1,800 staff members, including experts in the engineering and marine engineering wings. The state, which has the second largest coastline stretching to 1,076km, has 13 coastal districts and 608 fishing villages.
The government also distributed Distress Alert Transmitter (DAT) developed by ISRO to fishermen who go into deep sea. At least 30,000 DAT have been given to fishermen since the scheme was launched in 2016 by former chief minister Jayalalithaa.
Apart from this, under the Fisheries Management for Sustainable Livelihoods (FIMSUL-2) project, wireless communication facilities to ensure safety of Tamil Nadu marine fishermen at a cost of Rs 66 crore was set up in 2016. The department had also provided 17,539 VHF sets with both 25 watts and 5 watts frequency to the mechanised fishing crafts. These VHF sets are like the walkie-talkie sets that have more than 200 nautical miles range. The tender value of these sets, when purchased, was for Rs.70 crore. And then there are the transponders, satellite phones, NAVIC and NAVTEX message receivers which have been distributed to the fishermen at a cost of Rs 2.28 crore. There are also100-metre tall marine towers set up in all the 13 coastal districts in the state to receive messages from the fishermen in distress.
Despite possessing the infrastructure, including the transponders, VHF sets, DAT and the marine towers, the authorities were unable to locate the fishermen who got stranded merely 10 nautical miles in the Indian waters.
Govt's rescue efforts questioned
While Bharathi blamed the Ennore Coast Guard officials for the lethargic search operations, he also admitted that the Coast Guard in Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal could not trace the missing fishermen.
The fisheries minister maintained that the boat got drifted near Visakhapatnam and so the state government could not get into rescue operations immediately.
Bharathi pointed out that while it was private boat, the transponders and the Very High Frequency (VHF) sets connected to the boat, nearby boats, the Coast Guard and to the 100 feet high marine tower at Ennore were provided by the government last year. “The boat was very close to Chennai, almost near Mallipattinam. The driver had actually tried to reach the authorities of the Coast Guard and the fisheries department, with the help of the transponder in his boat. But the equipment in the marine towers in our shores did not work. We heard from the Coast Guard that the transponders and the VHF receivers were not maintained well due to coronavirus lockdown,” said Bharathi.
However, minister Jayakumar said the transponder in the boat was not active. “We have to verify on this when the boat returns and the fishermen come back.”
Further delay
Meanwhile, there is likely to be further delay in the return of the fishermen. Sources in the fisheries department say the Indian Coast Guard refused to help saying the matter is now in the hands of the ministry of external affairs, as they are in Myanmar.
It is said the fishermen, though rescued by the Myanmar Coast Guard, were not allowed into the mainland until September 16, as the number of COVID-19 cases are high in Chennai. The ten fishermen, according to sources, were made to stay in their boat itself and were taken to the Coast Guard office in Myanmar only on Wednesday. Sources also say that the Myanmar authorities had proposed of towing the boat from the international waters to the international maritime boundary, from where they could be brought to Kolaktta or Haldia port, as there are no airline services.
“We have written to the MEA for help. We will rescue them soon,” Jayakumar said.
And the wait continues.
