Chennai, Nov 14 (IANS) An intensive search is on for around 200 fishermen and 16 boats belonging to three villages in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari district, caught in Cyclone Phyan in the Arabian sea, officials said Saturday.
Meanwhile, the district administration and fishermen’s associations have established communication with the remaining fishermen, who were out of contact for the past couple of days.

“We are not able to get in touch with 16 boats. As they normally go deep into the sea and stay there for a month or two, it is difficult to establish telecom link with them. We are hoping they are safe and fishing,” Kanyakumari District Collector Rajendra Ratnoo told IANS from Thuthur over phone.

He said seven boats were sunk in the Arabian Sea and there is no information about eight fishermen.

“Though they are feared dead, we are hoping for the best,” he added.

Ratnoo said seven Coast Guard aircraft and ten ships have been taking part in the search operations.

“We have set up information centres in all the villages manned by officials belonging to fisheries department, marine police and district administration to disseminate information to the fishermen’s families,” he added.

The Tamil Nadu fisheries department is also coordinating with its counterpart in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Kerala to collect information about the fishermen from Kanyakumari who land on their shores.

“There is no information about eight fishermen and seven boats. We are hoping for the best,” John Aloysius, secretary of Nanjil Migrating Fishermen Workers’ Union, told IANS over phone from Thuthur.

According to him, around 500 boats set out to sea Nov 1 and there was no information about 150 boats till Friday morning. “Each boat will have around 10 fishermen, on an average,” he said.

He said around 80 boats have now reached the Goan shores and three fishermen have been admitted into a hospital there.

“Other boats are reaching the Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala coasts. It will be helpful if the fisheries department and the police in those states join hands and pass on the information about the boats and fishermen who have landed there to us,” he said.

According to him, a group of fishermen who planned to venture into the seas Friday decided not to due to bad weather.

“Had they gone, some more information would have been available. The wireless sets carried by fishermen have low range. Communicating with them is difficult,” he said.