Ockhi Cyclone Dec-2017 Report English

with them. Then we were holding the cans for a long time and at a distance
we saw a small damaged boat floating, we then swam to that and caught hold
of it. In the meanwhile, one by one, the other fisherman I was with started
drowning and only myself and another person survived. Six persons including
my brother died. After two days, we saw a boat and they rescued us and
called the Indian Navy. The Indian Navy came after about two hours and took
us in a helicopter to Kerala and we were admitted in a government hospital”
From the testimonies documented by the preliminary fact-finding team, the inquest
team observes that the distress calls made by the fishermen through the wireless
were not immediately answered either by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard.
In all the coastal villages visited by the inquest team visited, there were strong
demands regarding provisions for modern communication equipment for at least
one-way communication from the shore to the sea, to provide information about realtime
weather forecast to the fishermen at sea. There were also demands that the
Tamil Nadu government should request the Government of India to lift the ban on
satellite phones and provide licensed phones to fishermen who are involved in deepsea
fishing and also provide very high frequency (VHF) sets, radio telephone and
Automatic Identification System (AIS).
During the preliminary fact-finding team’s visit to Mel Midalam village of Kanyakumari
district, a fisherman even mentioned an initiative being undertaken by a telecom
company’s foundation that aims to disseminate data on weather forecasts and
warnings via mobile phones of registered fishermen. The fisherman raised questions
so to why the government did not take this initiative while a private, non-profit
foundation has managed to.
Conditions of fishing harbours in Kanyakumari
The team visited the fishing harbours of Colachel, Muttom and Thengapattinam in
the district of Kanyakumari. In Thengapattinam fishing harbour, the team observed
that there were no security checks in place to monitor both entry and exit of vehicles.
In Muttom fishing harbour, the team observed extensive damages to the sea walls.
Though this is a fishing harbour built, owned and transferred by a private entity, the
fisherfolk of the area use it to dock their boats. The government should incur the cost
of repair to the damages to the port due to Cyclone Ockhi.
Damages to the Boats
The fishermen who are into deep-sea fishing take loans to procure boats, fishing
vessels, nets, engines and other equipment. They have to spend around Rs.
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