44 hours on, Kerala boat capsize search op continues; 22 dead, boat owner arrested
Kerala boat tragedy
Diving teams from the Indian Navy and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) continued their search operations at the Poorappuzha estuary in Kerala's Malappuram district, where an illegal ferry capsized and caused the death of 22 people.
So far, 22 bodies have been recovered, 10 people are hospitalised and five swam to safety after the accident that occurred around 7pm on Sunday night. Given that this was an illegal ferry, there are no clear records about the number of passengers that were on board during the ill-fated ride. Estimates suggest that 35 or 40 people were on board. Not having clear details on the passengers on-board poses a serious challenge to the agencies involved in a search operation.
A 15-member diving team from the Southern Naval Command has been on the site since Monday noon and has been conducting an underwater search using a sophisticated Diver Held Navigation System (DHNS), equipment that locates underwater objects using SONAR beams.
On Monday, the Kerala government announced that a judicial probe would be conducted to bring to light the wrongdoings that led to the accident. As per preliminary reports, there have been flagrant violations in the conduct of this tourist ferry. It is said that the boat was originally a fishing vessel that was later modified to ferry passengers did not have licenceand lacked adequate safety measures to ferry people, the vessel sailed out well after the permissible ride timings, the vessel was overcrowded and carried twice the number of passengers, life vests were not provided to passengers etc. In connection with this, Kerala Police managed to arrest the boat owner by Monday evening.
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Around 7 pm on Sunday, 'Atlantic', an illegal tourist ferry that carried around 40 passengers, capsized few hundred meters from the estuary, where the Poorappuzha river meets the Arabian sea.
Initial reports indicate that the ferry had capsized owing to overcrowding. As the incident took place after sunset, rescue operations faced several hurdles in the night hours.The first responders to this accident were the local people and fishermen and they were soon joined in by state authorities including police, fire and rescue teams etc.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had expressed condolences over the tragic loss of lives and announced ex-gratia of Rs.200,000 to each of the bereaved families.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan visited a government-run hospital on Monday and met the survivors of the boat accident and he announced Rs 1 million as compensation for the kin of each of the deceased.
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