Adrift at sea for 28 days, Andaman man finally reaches shore
BHUBANESWAR:THE sleepy coastal village of Khirisahi in Odisha was suddenly astir on Friday when a battered boat washed ashore with a man who could barely walk. Amrit
Kujur, 49, of Shaheed Dweep in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, had been missing at sea for the past 28 days during which he lost a friend and weathered two storms in the Bay of Bengal.
Kujur told Odisha police that he had set off on the boat from the Andaman Islands, about 750 nautical miles or 1300 km from the Odisha coast, on September 28 with a friend, Divyaranjan, to sell provisions and potable water to ships in the Andaman sea. The boat ran into a storm and “then drifted along till it finished its fuel,” said Abhimanyu Nayak, inspector of the Krushnaprasad police station in Puri.
“The mast of the ship was badly damaged and the wireless communication failed. Fearing capsize, the men threw their wares into the sea to reduce the weight on the boat,” Nayak said.
Though the two tried to seek help and sent out signals to many passing cargo ships along the way, no one noticed them. Finally, a Burmese Navy ship came to their aid helped the men by giving them 260 litres of diesel and a compass for determining the direction But the duo ran out of luck again as they encountered another storm in the Bay of Bengal and had to anchor midway. The wind got too strong and the anchor rope snapped. The waves dumped of gallons of seawater into the boat, which did not capsize and drifted around until the fuel was used up.
“With no food and drinking water, Divyaranjan died while Kujur survived by drinking rainwater that he had soaked up in his towel. At times he was forced to drink sea water,” said the police official who met Kujur.
Kujur kept the body of Divyaranjan for two days but had to throw it into the sea once it started decomposing. “It’s God’s grace that I am alive,” he said. Kujur was examined by doctors and was found to be well. Officials said his family members had been contacted and they would be arriving in Odisha in a day or two.