All the passengers on board belonged to one family. The head of the family, Soundarapandian annachi, ran a hotel on the Gummidipoondi bypass road.
A Christmas joy ride turned into a tragedy for 22 members of a family, when a boat capsized near the sea mouth of the Pulicat lake backwaters on Sunday afternoon.
Only three boys were rescued out of the 25 present in the boat. A dozen bodies were fished out by rescuers late evening.
The search operations were set to go on into the night.
Ashok, an alert fisherman who was in a boat in the vicinity, rescued Paul Dinakar (10), Ponraj (12), and Janakaraj (13).
All the passengers on board belonged to one family. The head of the family, Soundarapandian annachi, ran a hotel on the Gummidipoondi bypass road.
His grandson was baptized on Sunday morning. Many relatives had joined them for the joyous occasion and a group of over 20 family members made the trip to the Pulicat lake.
Official sources said though the boat could hold no more than 10 passengers, there were 25 on board when the accident happened.
No vests
The boat was not equipped with life vests. The boat driver Ansari (19) and his wife Nasirin Begam, who until recently worked in the hotel in Gummidipoondi, are also feared dead. Ansari's uncle Babu Masthan said: “No one should ever be allowed to take tourists into the sea again. Should this happen to us just a day before the tsunami anniversary?”
Following the accident, two Coast Guard ships were diverted to aid in rescue operations.
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Sunday announced an ex gratia of Rs. 1 lakh each to the families of the 22 victims.
The sum will be provided from the Chief Minister's Public Relief Fund.
Ms. Jayalalithaa instructed Dairy Development Minister V. Moorthy and Environment Minister B. V. Ramanaa to rush to the spot and oversee relief work, an official press note said. Governor K. Rosaiah expressed condolences to the bereaved families.
Keywords: Pulicat boat capsize
@Amol.. First thought that comes to mind.. totally tragic and very avoidable especially in the case of tourism.
Never the whole family in 1 vehicle , everything lost.
Every time we have been hearing this kind of tragedies and we are all giving our deep condolences, compensations and media coverage’s etc., and after some time everyone (even our government) fergeting about these incidents and going on regular works. This Pulicat lake incident is happening second time but there is no proper tourism guideline and procedures are implemented for tourist boating.
This Pulicat is very close to Chennai and people wants to spend some time during the holidays, if government takes this incident as final lesson learn (if really think seriously about human being lives) please immediately implement the safety precautions/guidelines and regulate this travel thro TTDC as like other places of Tamilndau. I hope the respective department will do this needful immediately to STOP loosing any more lives..
everyone should take this tragedy as lesson. whoever wanna ride the boat before you make sure how many person capable make ride one boat...and safety thing such as vest too. if not, don't ride...if everyone follow rules and regulation..we can avoid tragedy...and save life too.
this accident is very bad moment of life.people have no sense and awarness of safety
What a terrible tragedy and loss of lives. People have no sense and awareness of safety. Taking too many people for a few more rupees and overloading the boats without any life-boats and no safety measures caused this tragedy. The authorities who show a blind eye and the greedy operators of these kind of rides are to be blamed and punished.
Overloadig of passengers is not only in chennai.It is all over India in all major cities.This is also case with trains. Railway/Bus department should not issued tickets more than carrying capacity.These departments particularly Railway authorities can do this.By issuing more than capacity tickets they are asking people to travel in very very poor conditions.[General compartments in train].
The overloading in the boat that has led to the causalities. this should be a lesson for the overloading of passengers in town buses especially Chennai city. To cite an example it is a daily affair that the students of anjuham school west mambalam travel in foot boards of town buses in large numbers in the evening after the school closes by 3 p.m. some catch the bus in running motion. some hang the windows and travel. will authorities look into this and stop this and save the students. if not curbed in the beginning itself one day or other it will lead to a major accident.
With cheap polystyrene foam inside nylon fabric, one can make life vests for under Rs 100 each. It would be much more cost-effective than doling out ex gratia payment after tragedies. Why can't the Nation mass-produce such vests for all the thousands who travel by boats and ferries in India. Why do we continue to disregard basic safety measures, is all walks of Life? Is it because we mistake 'being unsafe' as 'being brave'?
May God bless the souls. The images are heart-wrenching.
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