The cab traverses a badly damaged 15-feet-wide road and enters the coastal hamlet of Mulloorthurai about 40 km from Nagercoil, headquarters of Kanniyakumari district. The tide roars just 50 metres away. Further down, the loud crying of women from a small house submerges the sound of thudding waves. Nearby, young women sit silently under a makeshift pandal.
When a ship rammed Oceanic , a mechanised fishing boat with a 14-member crew, off Munambam in Kerala in the early hours of August 7, this family lost two of its men — S. Sahayaraj (46), who died on the spot of the accident, and J. Sahayaraj (36), who went missing along with eight others from the nearby Ramanthurai village.
Maritime law requires a ship involved in a mid-sea collision to be detained immediately upon identification, and allowed proceed, subject to conditions, only after depositing a significant sum of money, as directed by the court.
In the Oceanic case, a ship has been identified and detained at the Mangalore Port, but police have been unable to confirm the same vessel was involved in the mishap, although technology enables the Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) to track vessels with accuracy.
The Oceanic ’s crew, 12 of them locals and one each from Kerala and West Bengal, had returned with a decent catch just the previous day after a longer foray off the coast of Kochi. The hard-working fishers had ventured out again that very evening, but this time with tragic consequences.
Missing at sea
R. Yuganathan (46) and A. Yakobu (55), both from Ramanthurai, also died in the Oceanic incident. A. Edwin (40) of Ramanthurai and Narain Sarkar (33) of West Bengal were grievously injured, and are undergoing treatment at a hospital at Ernakulam. There has been no information on the nine missing men.
Yuganathan is survived by his wife and three daughters, ages 22, 20 and 18. “He secured admission for his third daughter in college recently,” says Sahayadas, Yuganathan’s nephew.
D. Jesu Balan and his brothers D. Rajesh and D. Dinesh are among the missing, and the narrow lane in which their home is situated reverberates with the wailing lament of women. “The tragedy has virtually destroyed the family,” says Joseph, Jesu Balan’s uncle. Mr. Joseph’s son Shalu is also missing.
Reverend Father Churchill, general secretary of the South Asian Fishermen Fraternity (SAFF), says, “In the past five years, more than 30 fishermen from the district have been killed or have gone missing in 15 similar mid-sea mishaps involving ships. This keeps happening because ships in the high seas are not properly monitored and the law is not enforced.”
The injured Mr. Edwin told Father Churchill over phone from Ernakulam that the ship rammed their boat when Narain, Yuganathan, Yakobu and Sahayaraj were on the deck, while others were in the room beneath the wheelhouse.
Four cases
SAFF has taken four cases involving mid-sea collisions to court for compensation. Fr. Churchill adds that the district lost 164 fishermen to Cyclone Ockhi in December 2017.
He also cites three other recent mid-sea mishaps. In one of the incidents, a ship collided with a boat off the coast of Kanniyakumari on January 30, 2018. Murugesan of Tharuvaikulam in the Thoothukudi district died in the incident, his fellow fisher Nixon suffered grievous injuries, and Nixon’s brother Justin is still missing.
In another case, a ship damaged a fishnet off the Colachel coast in Kanniyakumari district, and although the fishermen took a photograph of the vessel and a complaint was lodged with the Coastal Security Group police, no action was taken.
In the third case of the recent past, a mechanised boat from the Chinnathurai village suffered extensive damage in a mid-sea collision with a ship off Kerala's Veppur coast in March.
“Though the ship involved in the accident was detained on the orders of the Directorate General of Shipping at Goa, it was allowed to go after 55 days without any action as the charges could not be proved,” Fr. Churchill says. No FIR was registered as the Kerala Police said the mishap took place in territorial waters beyond their jurisdiction.
Fr. Churchill explains that the fishermen of Kanniyakumari district, who are also employed by boat owners of neighbouring Kerala, are experts in multi-day deep sea tuna fishing and in operating mechanised bottom trawling boats. But they often sail into danger.
S. Sahayaraj's widow Violet Mary is inconsolable. She holds her missing brother J. Sahayaraj's lungi. Her two teenage sons sit next to her in her small rented home. “The family has lost its breadwinners,” says Kalpana, a relative. Ms. Mary's mother is lies crumpled in a corner, having lost both her son and son-in-law.
