The Indian Coast Guard said it had rescued a total of 367 fishermen of whom 234 belonged to Tamil Nadu. These fishermen were stuck at sea following Cyclone Ockhi.
The Coast Guard ship ICGS Samrat on Tuesday had rescued 184 fishermen on 15 fishing boats near Bitra Island, north of Lakshadweep Islands. Of these, 13 fishing boats with 162 fishermen belonged to Tamil Nadu.
Also, “80 Tamil Nadu fishing boats with 1,198 fishermen have taken shelter at various places like Devgarh, Malwan, Karwar on the west coast of India including Andorth, Kalpeni, Bitra, Kiltan, Agatti and Chelet Island. Details of the same are being shared with the State administration,” the Coast Guard said in a press release.
ICGS Abhiraj, which sailed from the Tuticorin harbour with seven fishermen on board to help in the search operations, came across a toppled boat named Tanga, which the Coast Guard said was most likely a Sri Lankan fishing boat, 45 nautical miles south east of Muttam Point. Neither debris nor survivors were found and the boat was not towable as it was damaged.
On Wednesday, a total of 20 Coast Guard ships, six aircraft carried out search and rescue operations off Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Lakshadweep and Minicoy coasts.
The Coast Guard had also deployed a number of other vessels to search for stranded fishermen. It said 40 Kochi-based fishing boats with 516 fishermen from Trivandrum and Kochi have taken shelter at Veraval, while another 130 fishing boats are at Devgarh. Forty other fishing boats have taken shelter at the Jaigarh harbour.
“CG Dornier from Chennai has been launched along the Tamil Nadu coast to alert and sensitise the fishing boats/fishermen to return to harbour in view of the developing system in Bay of Bengal,” the Coast Guard said.
