Satish Kundar, president of Malpe Fishermen’s Association, said on Thursday that the officers of the Navy had told him in Bengaluru that they were still searching for the fishing boat, Suvarna Tribhuja, which went missing off the Goa coast with seven fishermen onboard, on December 15, 2018.
Mr. Kundar told The Hindu over the telephone from Bengaluru that he and secretary of the association Gopal R.K. attended a meeting on coastal security chaired by Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar in Bengaluru on Thursday.
During the meeting, he had raised the issue of the missing boat. The officers of the Navy gave detailed explanation of the search operations conducted by them to trace the missing boat with the help of ships and helicopters.
“The Navy officers told us that they are continuing the search for the boat since December 22. The search is still on. They are using sonar technology to check if the missing boat had sunk,” he said.
Mr. Kundar said that ISRO had got a picture of a group of boats near Sindhudurg on December 15. But it was not possible to spot the missing boat among them. He told the meeting that he had learnt that a ship had passed in that area near Sindhudurg on December 15. It was decided to gather information in this matter, he said.
Mr. Kundar said that he told the officers that fishermen from Malpe were harassed by fishermen from Malvan in Maharashtra. The meeting decided to take it up with Maharashtra.