The people in several fishing hamlets in Kerala’s capital district Thiruvananthapuram have fallen into a state of despair and helplessness as the search in Arabian Sea for the fishermen who had gone missing in cyclone Ockhi that ravaged the State’s coast and elsewhere on November 30 has been wound up though scores of fishermen are yet to be found.
The fishermen community is viewing the winding up of the search operations by the State the other day as an act of betrayal by the State Government as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and his Cabinet colleagues had promised even on the Christmas day that the search would not be called off till the last fishermen missing in the sea was found.
Disappointed by the alleged irresponsibility being shown by the Government in handling one of the worst disasters the State has seen, the latin Catholic Church, to which a large number of fishermen in Thiruvananthapuram district belong, is thinking of adopting legal measures to ensure resumption of efforts for finding the fishermen who are still missing.
The Church had earlier considered the option of filing a habeas corpus writ in the High Court but it withdrew from the move on the basis of the Government’s assurance that the searches would continue till the last missing fisherman was found. It now feels that the Government has betrayed it as well as the fishermen with the decision to wind up the search.
The legal proceedings will not be initiated directly by the Thiruvananthapuram Archdiocese of the Church but the plan is to file the petition demanding resumption of the search through the Fishermen’s Coordination Committee. The committee may also launch an agitation demanding efforts for finding all the missing fishermen.
“The lapse on the part of the Government is very serious. Even on the Christmas day, they had promised to continue the search but they have now called it off. May be this is no big issue for the authorities but we can’t neglect the anxiety of our people. We are left with no option but to take some serious decision,” said a senior latin Catholic Church priest.
The search that began on December 1 in Arabian Sea, launched jointly by the Navy, Coast Guard, Marine Enforcement and the Fisheries Department for the missing fishermen had gone on for 30 days. The State Government had also carried out a search using 105 private fishing boats for five days before Christmas did not have much success.
As per the Government’s estimates, only 185 fishermen are still to be found though on January 3, it had given the number of missing as 216 including 141 Keralites and 75 workers from other states. The Government has confirmed 76 deaths in the cyclone but 34 bodies recovered from the sea are yet to be identified.
However, informal estimates say that 300 fishermen, who had gone for fishing before the cyclone struck the Kerala and Tamil Nadu coasts on November 30, are yet to be found. It says that 119 fishermen who had gone from hamlets like Vizhinjam, Poonthura and Adimalathura in Thiruvananthapuram have not returned so far.
As per unofficial figures, 148 fishermen who had gone to sea before the cyclone from Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari district – most of them belonging to the latin Catholic Church – have not been found. Apart from them, 39 Tamil Nadu natives who had left for fishing from the Kerala coast and about 50 persons from other states are also still missing.
“This is indeed a serious matter and it is our duty to pursue it,” said Xavier Joseph, a fisherman. “The search cannot be called off just like that. We should know what happened to our people. Not many hope that all of them would still be alive after so many days but confirmation has to come from the Government,” he added.