Recurring incidents of foreign commercial ships hitting small boats engaged in fishing activities off the coast of Kerala, in which several fishermen have been killed and injured and their livelihood has been lost due to destruction of boats and nets, and the failure of the State and Central Governments to take the vessels’ authorities to task are enhancing anxieties of the fishermen community in the State.
The incident in which a cargo vessel rammed into a small boat used by hook-and-line fishermen at around noon Saturday some 39 nautical miles off the Kollam coast has renewed fishermen’s worries. Six fishermen were injured in the accident and their boat was irreparably destroyed but the ship sailed away without bothering to rescue the fishermen.
Till late Monday evening, the Indian authorities had not succeeded in making the managers of the vessel, identified as KSl Anyang with Hong Kong flag, respond to the Navy’s instruction that the ship should sail to Port Blair for legal procedures. The vessel, sailing from Iran to Singapore, is reportedly lying anchored at the Colombo port.
The Coastal Police in Kochi on Monday registered a case — without mentioning the identity of the ship — after recording the statements of the occupants of the small anglers’ boat, Arockia Annai, from Colachel, Tamil Nadu. The shipping company has reportedly adopted a stand that KSl Anyang had not been involved in any accident off the Kerala coast as alleged.
“Experience tells us that the fishermen need not keep any hope of getting justice in this case also,” said Joseph Xavier, a local fisherman from Thoppumpady, Kochi. “Our Governments go on talking about technicalities and legal complications as poor fishermen’s lives perish before these mammoth specters of steel,”
he said.
Joseph Xavier points out that such “accidents” are not isolated incidents. “less than 80 days ago (on June 11), a Panamanian vessel (Amber l) had crushed a boat (Carmel Matha) under it off the Kochi coast killing two fishermen. Another went missing. The authorities are saying that procedures are on. Can you tell me when these ‘procedures’ endIJ” he fumes.
At least ten fishermen have been killed, several inured and fishing implements worth crores of rupees have been lost in incidents of foreign ships ramming into fishing boats off the Kerala coast in the past seven years. Fishermen complain that proper justice has not been delivered to them in any of these cases.
Seven Keralite fishermen had suffered serious injuries when a foreign vessel hit a Kochi-based fishing boat off the Kerala coast between Kollam and Kayamkulam in January last. A similar incident had occurred in the sea off Ezhimala in February, 2013 in which several occupants of another Kochi-based fishing boat were injured.
The classic example of how justice is denied to poor fishermen in incidents involving ships owned by foreign shipping corporations and complex international laws and diplomatic compulsions was the case in which two fishermen were shot dead by Italian Marines guarding Naples-registered tanker Enrica lexie 14 nautical miles off Kollam coast on February 15, 2012.
“Nothing has happened in that case even after five years of legal proceedings,” says a leader of a leading fishermen’s union. “We had seen all kinds of drama in that case. We had seen Italy’s senior ministers, diplomats and other officials pouring into fishing hamlets in Kollam. Does anybody know what happened to that caseIJ” he asks.
The union leader points out that the Indian authorities almost always fail to ensure proper action on the basis of international maritime laws against the shipping companies and personnel responsible for accidents off the country’s coast. He alleged that the authorities used to show more interest in somehow arranging settlements than getting justice to victims.
“In most of such collision cases, the responsible ships tend to flee the Indian sea limits before the Coast Guard and Navy spring to action. It is extremely difficult to bring these vessels back to our ports for initiating proper legal action against its personnel. Such complexities and the usual apathy of out authorities make matters worse,” said Samuel, a marine fisheries expert in Kochi.