Kerala: Fishermen act as rescue force

Thiruvananthapuram: Cyclone Ockhi has triggered a debate on the need to have a community-based disaster management taskforce after many fishermen ventured into the sea, saved  lives and recovered  bodies. A few fishermen guided district administrations in rescue missions that saved men from uninhabited islands.The first among volunteers was a 14-member team from Vizhinjam which defied the warnings of Coast Guard to bring back 10 people alive on December 30.

"We knew that those who had fallen into the sea  from the capsized boats would not last long. So, in the afternoon, soon after cyclone stuck,  ten men, including my uncle Davidson, went into the sea to rescue five men in the initial hours," said Christian Xavier of Vizhinjam.

Though  coast guards were urged  to start rescue,  they said they did not have jurisdiction to go beyond 12 nautical miles. Also, they deemed that the sea was too rough to start a rescue operation. With this, four more fishermen, including  Xavier's brother John Paul Xavier, went into the sea.

"The local parish had arranged us a boat risking the loss of the vessel. We had only life jackets, ropes and ring tubes with which we could save another five," said  John Paul Xavier. The group met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and complained about disaster management system during his visit to the city.

On the third day after cyclone,  around 70 boats ventured from the capital in search of bodies and managed to find several. "For fishermen, the rescue was  not just a task. We were emotionally charged and had the zeal for rescue. All we needed was  resources and assistance. It is known that the men from Vizhinjam go even as far as Diego Garcia," said Albert Xavier, a fisherman from Poonthura who was part of the local rescue expeditions. Similarly, the revenue control room officials testified that fishermen phoned them  and guided them to locations of the possible survivors.

The video of a youth identified as Joy of Poovar who guided the rescue of a few from his hamlets went  viral on social media. He rang up a few boat owners at Thoothoor and calculated the approximate latitudes and longitude of a missing boat called BP Maria.  He called the collectorate and informed the locations of uninhabited islands like Periyappara, Chinnappara and Manjappara where survivors could be found.  The next day, on December 4, around 72 people were rescued based on similar inputs. However, it took few more days for the Navy to allow fishermen on board during rescue missions.

"They also collected information from people who returned ashore and helped estimate the number of actual missing ones during the initial days," an official said. Based on such experiences, Mr  Shashi Tharoor MP appealed to Parliament for the formation of a voluntary force similar to Territorial Army in coastal hamlets to act during calamities in sea and coast.