THE FISHERMEN LOST AT SEA – AND FORGOTTEN BY THEIR GOVERNMENT
Indian villagers protest about failure to find loved ones missing since Cyclone Ochki struck
Villagers in southern Tamil Nadu and Kerala are protesting against unsuccessful government efforts to find hundreds of fishermen who went missing in a cyclone two weeks ago.
At least 48 people were killed in Cyclone Ochki, and the toll is increasing.
On Monday, the 11th day of search and rescue operations, two bodies decomposed beyond recognition were recovered from the ocean.
One was found near the city of Kochi, and the other off the coast near Ponnani town.
On Tuesday, rescue teams found another eight bodies of fishermen in the water near Kozhikode. The men had been at sea when Ochki hit.
At least 195 fishermen – 100 from Tamil Nadu and 95 from Kerala – are missing, the states’ governments say.
But the fishing communities put the toll at 400 in Tamil Nadu and 300 in Kerala.
The confusion was compounded on Sunday when an official in Tamil Nadu’s southernmost district of Kanyakumari said 462 fishermen were missing from that district.
The uncertainty over the numbers is spurring the communities to protest against what they perceive to be their governments’ lack of urgency.
On Tuesday, thousands of fishermen and their families marched on Raj Bhavan, the governor’s residence in Thiruvananthapuram.
Soosa Pakiam, the archbishop of the city, led a delegation that pleaded with the governor to intensify rescue operations.
The Kerala government did not take cyclone warnings seriously enough to issue sufficient alerts to its people, Mr Pakiam told the rally.
“That we have not been able to find out the real number of fishermen lost to the cyclone shows the gravity of the situation,” said Mr Pakiam, whose family are fishermen.
In Tamil Nadu, particularly in Kanyakumari, fishing families from at least a dozen villages began to protest on December 7. They blocked roads in the area and the tracks of the railway station in the town of Kuzhithurai.
They formed human chains on the beaches and called for Ochki to be declared a national disaster.
If prime minister Narendra Modi’s government were to do so, it would entitle these communities to more aid and relief.
On Tuesday, Edappadi K Palaniswami, chief minister of Tamil Nadu, made his first visit to the cyclone-hit areas in Kanyakumari.
Mr Palaniswami promised compensation of two million rupees (Dh113,977) to families of fishermen who were killed.
He also promised a government job for a member of each family.
The Kerala government has promised two million rupees to the families of each dead fisherman, and 500,000 rupees to any survivors who have been injured or disabled by the cyclone.
Fishermen from Tamil Nadu and Kerala often venture out to sea for weeks.
Their boats range in size, and the largest may hold a crew of 16 people.
Their fishing takes them east into the Bay of Bengal, south into the Indian Ocean or west into the Arabian Sea.
The cyclone may have sunk boats, drowning their crews.
But it could also have damaged communications systems or engines, or pushed the boats farther from shore. On Sunday, John Leonard, the president of a fishermen’s organisation in Kanyakumari, said families had been given no information at all.
Some government officials reassured protesters that the missing fishermen had been blown ashore in other states, such as Maharashtra, or on to the islands of Lakshadweep in the Arabian Sea.
But no one had received even a single phone call from these regions confirming that any fishermen were there, Mr Leonard said.
“The officials in those states could at least send a list of fishermen with their names and the villages they come from in Tamil Nadu so that the family members are put at ease,” he said.
As the days pass, the chances of survival for fishermen missing at sea dwindle, particularly for those who may be stuck on small boats stocked with few supplies.
Rescue operations continue. On Saturday, the federal government ordered the navy, the coastguard and the air force to keep searching the oceans until December 19.
The fact that we have not been able to find out the real number ... shows the gravity of the situation SOOSA PAKIAM Archbishop of Thiruvananthapuram