Fortnight after Cyclone Ockhi, a stoic wait for the missing — ‘until Christmas’

A man prays next to photographs of missing fishermen displayed outside the St Thomas Church in Poonthura near Thiruvananthapuram Wednesday. (Source: AP)

WITH MORE than 500 people and at least 50 traditional and deep-sea boats still missing a fortnight since Cyclone Ockhi hit the coastline of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, prayers and protests are what the fishing communities in villages along the border of the two states are left with. Their life these days revolve primarily around the local churches, praying that those missing return.

“We haven’t told our people what we fear. We are waiting…hoping that they will all reach the shores in the next 10 days or so,” said Andrews Kosmos, forane vicar of Thoothoor vicariate, a zone comprising nine fishing villages near Kanyakuamri who go deep-sea fishing with long-liner hooks, unlike most Indian fishermen who use nets.

The updated report on Wednesday said 376 people remain missing from Thoothoor zone, near Kanyakumari. Quoting survivors, it suspects 104 are dead.

About 50 km northwest of Thoothoor, the situation is similarly grim in Kerala. Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma told The Indian Express that 137 people along Thiruvananthapuram coastline are missing.

While these figures identify local fishermen, at least 50 labourers — most of them from Assam, West Bengal and the Northeast — who were on the boats are also missing. These workers were not registered with the Fisheries Department, so an exact figure may never be known.

In both states, people continue their protests, blaming the authorities for delay in sending warnings and the subsequent poor response. While Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan faced public wrath for his alleged delay in visiting them, Tamil Nadu fishermen near Kanykaumari, protesting for almost a week, slammed Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.

“The cyclone hit at a time when the fisheries sector was being revamped for safety and protection,” Kerala Fisheries Minister J Mercykutty Amma told The Indian Express. She said she has had two rounds of meetings with ISRO in October and November and finalised distribution of powerful satellite-aided communication equipment for fishermen who go beyond 60 or 100 nautical miles (nm). “Fishermen are daredevils who go beyond boundaries for a catch in small vessels. But they lack communication and safety equipment,” she said.

“Considering even many smaller boats go beyond 30 or 50 nm, ISRO has promised to supply satellite-aided navigational equipment for communication —- 1,500 such phones will be distributed from January 10 on an experimental basis,” she said.

In Tamil Nadu, when Palaniswami finally met affected families in Thoothoor on Tuesday, fishermen demanded a double-line sat phone for better communication between boats and Fisheries department.

Back in Thoothoor zone, Peter Darwin, vicar of Vallavila church, said they have not announced the death figures yet. “They (missing fishermen) have to sail back, dock their boats, and be with us in the next 10 days. We will wait for them until Christmas Day,” he said.