The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) on Saturday recovered the bodies of two fishermen whose boat capsized off Mallipattinam on Tuesday. Of the 10 fishermen who were sailing in the boat from Cuddalore, six have been rescued. Search is on to trace two others.
The bodies were found south of Muthupettai, about 14 nautical miles off Mallipattinam in Pudukottai district after an alert from the local fishermen.
The ICG personnel took the bodies on board the vessel and handed them over to the Marine police of the Coastal Security Group (CSG) and Fisheries Department officials at Mallipattinam. E. Kathavarayan, Deputy Director of Fisheries, who was camping in Mallipattinam, said the bodies would be handed over to the family members after post-mortem at the government hospital in Pattukottai.
Stating that the bodies were not immediately identified, he said the fishermen had also sighted bodies of the remaining two between Mallipattinam and Muthupettai. The ICG has been informed about the location, he said.
M. Venkatesan, Commander, Mandapam Station of the ICG, said personnel in two ships – Abheek and Anagh – have been asked to recover the bodies. He regretted that the local fishermen just moved on after noticing the bodies instead of recovering them or staying there till an ICG vessel reached the spot.
“By the time we reached the spot, the bodies would have drifted away,” he said. The ICG vessels which had been in the operation days since Tuesday would continue the search, he said.
Demand compensation
Meanwhile, the fishermen, with their family members, staged protest inside the taluk office in Rameswaram demanding a compensation of ₹20 lakh each to the families of the drowned fishermen and government job to one of the family members. They dispersed after Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao held talks with the leaders and promised to do his best to the bereaved families.
Ten fishermen were sailing from Cuddalore in the newly purchased country boat from Cuddalore when it capsized off Mallipattinam on Tuesday afternoon. While two fishermen were rescued by local fishermen on the same day, four others were rescued on Thursday.
