With 13 more deaths being reported on Sunday, the toll in Kerala in Cyclone Ockhi rose to 27 even as the fishing community continued their anxious wait for the return of many fishermen who had gone to Arabian Sea before the storm broke out.
Weather over Kerala territory returned to somewhat normal while the very severe cyclone started to move slowly north-northwestwards from lakshadweep where it has left a trail of destruction and misery.
Bodies of 12 fishermen were reportedly recovered from the sea on Sunday even as official sources confirmed a total of 19 deaths. According to Government sources, as many as 92 fishermen were still stranded in the sea but people in fishing hamlets put the number at 200. Two of the bodies were found by fishermen who had gone to the sea on rescue mission voluntarily.
As 77 more fishermen were safely brought back to the shore on Sunday, the total number of fishermen rescued in the past four days through the joint operations by the forces and official agencies including the Navy, IAF and Coast Guard – and the fishermen’s own efforts – since the cyclone broke out reached 508.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan had a taste of the wrath of the protesting fishermen when they blocked him as he reached Vizhinjam late Sunday evening to assure them of the Government’s support. The protest was so intense that he could not even get into his official car as agitators grappled with the police. He was forced to take a different vehicle.
The fishing community was protesting the alleged ineffectiveness of the official rescue operations as the forces. They alleged that the official mission had failed to bring ashore all the fishermen lying stranded in the seas for the past five days. The Government had consistently refused to honour their request for permission to join the rescue efforts in the sea.
The fishermen’s argument was that they could immensely contribute to the operations because they knew the sea like the back of their hand. Finally, about 200 fishermen from Poonthura and Vizhinjam villages went to sea in 55 boats on Sunday morning defying the Government’s orders to search for their kin and colleagues stranded there.
Giving credence to their argument, one of the boats that had gone from Poonthura, from where 33 fishermen were still stranded in the sea, came back shortly with the body of a fisherman. Another boat returned in the evening with another body and a fisherman on that boat said they cited a capsized country boat and another totally deserted boat 54 nautical miles off the coast. The latin Catholic Church to which a large number of fishermen in Thiruvananthapuram belonged accused the Government of “cheating them for the past four days” with hollow promises.