Relatives in Indian coastal areas of Kerala and Tamil Nadhu wait in vain for fathers and husbands to return
The body of a fisherman is brought to shore on Dec. 13 near the northern Keralan town of Kozhikode. (Photo by IANS)
With about 650 fishermen still missing a month after the Ockhi cyclone hit the southern Indian coast, hundreds of families spent Christmas and New Year in lingering hope of their return, but optimism is fading fast (UCAN report).
The central government has admitted that the number of missing fishermen are 661. Central Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament on Dec. 27 that 261 from Kerala and 400 from Tamil Nadu are missing. No one has been rescued since the announcement. Official government records show 76 people died in the Nov. 29-Dec. 5 tragedy in the southern tip of India covered by the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Cyclone Ockchi has received scant media attention and coverage in ‘mainstream’ media.
“It indeed was a very sad Christmas and New Year for us. With children waiting for their fathers, and wives for their husbands, how will families celebrate?” asked Robert Panippillai, leader of a volunteer group that works in the coastal areas near Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum), Kerala’s capital.
He said his 59-year-old brother Cletus Panippillai drowned. Leaders like him say thousands of fishermen were at work when the cyclone hit the sea on Nov. 29 because officials failed to issue a warning in time.
Panippillai’s brother and three others were on a boat. Two escaped by clinging on to the capsized boat. “My brother and a co-worker struggled for hours but were reported drowned,” he said.
Hopes for the missing men are now fading among local people who say even those who go on month-long fishing trips come back a day or two before Christmas in the mainly Catholic area, where Portuguese missionaries brought the Catholic faith in the 16th century.
“We were expecting more to return before Dec. 24. But unfortunately none of the missing have returned even for Christmas. It dampened the spirit of Christmas in the coastal village parishes,” Panippillai said.
Thousands of clay lamp candles were lit on the internationally known tourist beach of Kovalam in Kerala on Dec. 30 to pay homage to victims of the cyclone. Many foreign tourists also participated in the solidarity campaign for the victims.
On Dec. 29, marking one month since the disaster, Kerala Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran said the government had decided to avoid New Year celebrations in the coastal areas in view of the disaster. His department would join state efforts to help the coastal people, he said.
However, confusion continues about the number of people dead and missing, with Catholic Church officials producing a different figure from the federal government, while the state government issued a third set of figures.
Kerala state’s latest figures released on Jan. 3 say only 141 fishermen from Kerala are missing. But the Archdiocese of Trivandrum says 317 people are missing and the federal government cites 261.
At least 73 people have died in Kerala in the disaster, officials of the Church and state announced. But in neighbouring Tamil Nadu they clash as officials say only three are dead, while church people say 108 have perished.
Father Eugene Pereira, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Trivandrum, claimed that church figures are the most reliable because information was collected personally from families.
“The state government has to agree with our numbers. The federal figures are almost close to church figures,” he said, noting that correct figures are necessary to get government aid to the families of missing people.
He said the state’s communist-led government continues to ignore the church’s data, forcing the church to think of legal action against the state’s failure to find missing people or admit them as missing.
Church officials are calling for a judicial commission to probe authorities’ failure to ensure timely rescue operations. “We are in the process of initiating all the possible legal steps to peruse our rights,” Father Pereira said.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan distributed bank cheques of 2.2 million rupees (US$35,000) each to 29 families of the victims.
He said the same amount of compensation will be given to families of all victims “irrespective of whether the fisherman is dead or still missing.”
Trivandrum Archdiocese published a rehabilitation plan costing 1 billion rupees on Dec.30.
The plan includes a township for people who were rendered homeless. Schemes for education and health for dependants of deceased fishermen are also part of the plan.
“This package cannot be implemented by the archdiocese alone. The assistance of the parishes, good Samaritans, other dioceses and other Christian groups and organisations are necessary,” Archbishop Soosa Pakiam Maria Kalist told the media.