Dornier aircraft attached to the Coast Guard (Region-East) will soon acquire technology to facilitate transmission of live visuals from the sea to the headquarters in Chennai. This facility will go a long way in launching relief/rescue operations involving fishermen or ships in distress along the eastern seaboard and having a real tactical overview of the maritime territory.
According to Inspector-General and Commander of Coast Guard (Region-East) S.P. Sharma, two advanced Dornier aircraft equipped with satellite phones, weather/navigational radars, optical cameras and Forward Looking Infra-red devices were inducted into the fleet recently.
“With this, the number of aircraft has gone up to five. Two Chetak helicopters are expected to join the fleet soon. New ships are also being commissioned to pave the way for a more intensified and strategic surveillance operations,” Com. Sharma told TheHindu on Tuesday.
Asked about the frequent attack on Tamil Nadu fishermen and incidents of fishing boats getting stranded or capsized, he said the Coast Guard had a well-organised mechanism of reaching out to the fishermen in distress. Patrolling on sea/air was organised in close coordination with the Indian Navy.
Referring to the incident where the Coast Guard rescued six fishermen stranded in an island for three days without food or water, Com. Sharma said the hovercraft sighted the victims waving for help and rushed to their rescue.
“We are enquiring why the family, fishermen association or the Fisheries Department did not report the matter. These fishermen who sailed out of Pamban coast in a country boat should have returned home by evening…though they were stranded for about four days, there was no complaint from any quarters,” he said.
Of the seven-member crew, one was feared missing. After the boat sunk, the fishermen swam to the fifth island close to the International Maritime Boundary Line. From there, they swam to one island after the other towards the homeland by taking cue from the direction of the sun.
