Country boat fishing community from coastal hamlets of the district on Monday staged a demonstration here, demanding stringent action against mechanised boat fishermen, who rammed their vessels into fibreglass country boats from Kooththenkuzhi on Friday last.
The incident led to a fisherman being reported missing and injuries to five others.
The protestors, who held the dharna in front of the Assistant Director of Fisheries at Radhapuram, also came down heavily on the State and Central governments for not pressing into service a helicopter to locate the missing fisherman.
They said a group of eight fishermen, led by T. Sahayam, 48, of Kooththenkuzhi, ventured into the sea on Friday last in a fibreglass country boat, owned by Selvam of Kooththenkuzhi, to recover a fishnet released by them about six nautical miles from the shore.
As they could not locate the fishnet — worth about ₹50,000 — they were searching for it, when a mechanised boat from Chinna Muttom Fishing Harbour rammed their vessel around 6 a.m. All eight fishermen were thrown into the sea.
“Since the mechanised boat, which should carry out fishing operations beyond eight nautical miles from the shore, was menacingly advancing towards us after entering the banned six nautical mile area, the country boat fishermen shouted and alerted the mechanised boat crew,” S.V. Antony of Uvari, the district’s largest coastal hamlet.
“Though they saw the country boat fishermen from their boat, which was manoeuvred at high speed, the driver did not change the direction and the larger vessel hit the fibreglass boat,” he said.
A fisherman, A. Delight, 36, was missing, while five others were undergoing treatment in hospital fior njuries. The extensive search launched by the country boat fishermen in high seas for missing fisherman was yet to yield any result, he added.
As the protest was going on, District Revenue Officer B. Muthuramalingam arrived at the spot and held talks with the agitated fishermen, who demanded stationing of a helicopter in Kanniyakumari to launch launch rescue operation in case of emergency.
To his response that he would forward their appeal to the Collector, they asked him to give an on-the-spot undertaking in writing.
When he clarified that he could not give any such promise to them, the protestors refused to talk with him and announced that they would meet the Collector to press their demand.
And the fishermen met Collector Shilpa Prabhakar Satish at the Collectorate in the evening to hand over a memorandum to press their demand.
