A month after the fishing boat Suvarna Tribhuja, from Malpe with seven fishermen, went missing off the Goa coast on December 15, the authorities are yet to trace it, while the families of the missing fishermen are distraught here. The boat had left Malpe Fisheries Harbour here along with six others on December 13 and went missing on December 15.
A missing complaint was lodged at the Malpe police station on December 22.
Two fishermen on the boat are from Udupi, the remaining five are from Uttara Kannada.
The missing fishermen are: Chandrashekhar Kotian, 40, owner and captain of the boat; Damodar Salian, 40, both from Udupi; Laxman, 45, Sathisha, 35, Harish, 28, Ramesh, 30, from Kumta, and Ravi, 27, from Manki.
Shyamala, wife of Mr. Chandrashekhar Kotian, and Mohini, wife of Mr. Damodar Salian, have been distraught since the boat went missing.
A teary-eyed Suvarna Thingalaya, father of Mr. Damodar Salian, said that his eyes are always looking towards the gate of his house.
“I keep hoping that he will come today or tomorrow. Damodar’s wife Mohini does not even have her meals properly. Damodar has nearly two-and-a-half decade experience of working on boats, ” he said.
Ganesh Kotian, brother of Mr. Chandrashekhar Kotian, said his sister-in-law, Shyamala, is too sad to talk to anybody. “We keep consoling her,” he said.
The family members are still hopeful that the fishermen will be traced.
Madhava Salian, brother of Mr. Damodar Salian, said he believed that the boat had been hijacked by pirates.
If the boat had sunk, debris would have floted on the sea.
“Suvarna Tribhuja is a strong two-year-old boat. It takes about two hours for such a boat to sink. That is enough to send a distress signal. It also had life jackets. All the boats have GPS devices. Hence we want ISRO to track it down,” he said.
“If the boat had sunk, there would have been oil spill as such boats carry about 5,000 litres of diesel with them. Hence we believe it has been hijacked and the fishermen have been kept in captivity,” said Mr. Ganesh Kotian.
