Authorities must wake up to boat tragedies
It is imperative to ensure that Sunday's boat tragedy in Odisha is not labeled as yet another ‘routine' accident and brushed under the carpet. Such incidents have been happening with alarming regularity in recent times and they cannot be ignored any longer. Only a few weeks ago, on January 26, a tourist boat capsized off the coast of Port Blair in the Andaman Sea, killing 21 people. Before that, 11 people had drowned after a boat overturned in the flooded Kosi river in Bihar last July. The year before that, six people lost their lives in June, and another six in August, after their boats went down, also in the Kosi. Because many of these accidents have happened in rural areas and the victims have mostly been from the marginalised sections of society, the incidents have received limited attention in the media. All that transpires in the aftermath of such a disaster are empty nothings: The authorities offer the established template response which usually includes paying for the medical treatment of survivors, an ex gratia compensation to the victims' next of kin and the announcement of a magisterial probe. While the first two only help towards mitigating immediate concerns, the third should have been designed to address the larger issues. However, this is rarely the case. More often than not, there is no follow-up on the investigation; the public is not even informed about the results of the probe, and there is even less information about whether the recommendations these panels make are accepted by the authorities and implemented. Finally, there has been almost no instance wherein those who put the life of others in jeopardy have been brought to book.
Most of these accidents can be traced to a handful of reasons. Overcrowding is almost always one of them. The boat that went down in the Hirakud Dam reservoir on Sunday was carrying more than 100 people when it was equipped for only 70. Similarly, in the January 26 case, the vessel that sank on its way from Ross Island to North Bay was ferrying almost 50 people when its capacity was half the number. In other words, such vessels are disasters waiting to happen even as they set sail. Consequently, if there is an additional problem en route, such as a technical snag (which is what seemingly happened on Sunday) or a risky manoeuvre, then the situation will almost certainly be fatal. For instance, in September 2009, when the double-decker Jalakanyaka sank in Kerala's lake Thekkady inside the Periyar National Park, killing 45 tourists, it was in part because the boat was overcrowded and part because it had structural flaws. Through much of its ill-fated trip on September 30, 2009, the boat was tilted to one side; when the passengers spotted some wild animals, the driver took a sharp turn while sailing at full speed and the boat capsized. Investigations later revealed that the boat did not comply with safety regulations and did not have adequate disaster recovery plans. This was in spite of the fact that it was owned and operated, not by some shady private contractor looking to make a quick buck, but by the Kerala Tourism Development Corporation. The need of the hour is for the authorities to draw up proper safety guidelines and ensure that these are implemented to the T. And, those who violate the rules must be severely and promptly punished.