Welcoming the fishermen back home, Fisheries Minister D Jayakumar said: “Fishermen were successfully brought home with the joint efforts of State, Central and Myanmar governments. One of the fishermen (Babu) is still missing and search is on”.

It was on July 23 that nine fishermen — Parthiban, Lakshmanan, Sivakumar, Kannan, Desapan, L Desapan, Raghu, Murugan and Babu — took to the seas from Kasimedu harbour in a boat. But as they lost contact with the shore and failed to return as planned by August 7, their families met Jayakumar, seeking State, Central intervention.

“We were left helpless. We had lost contact with the shore. And once we ran out of stock, we had to depend on raw fish to survive,” said Raghu, who operated the boat, adding they never thought to land in Chennai again.

Recalling that they were unable to see even each other once darkness falls, Parthiban said it was after 15 days that they could sight one Sri Lankan boat. “But our boat was in such bad shape that they were not willing to tow it. Meanwhile, our families back home sought government help,” he added.

A few weeks ago, even after Myanmar Coast Guard spotted them, they were not taken to the shore due to the pandemic threat. “We were given food and we ate it in the boat itself. It was then that Babu attempted to repair the boat, but he slipped and disappeared in the sea,” said Parthiban.

After Myanmar government informed the Indian government, the Indian Embassy took steps to bring them back to Chennai and issued emergency visas. On Wednesday night, all eight boarded the Vande Bharat flight from Myanmar and landed in Delhi. On Thursday morning they reached Chennai airport on a domestic flight.