Eight fishermen dead after missing trawler capsizes in Bay of Bengal

Eight fishermen killed, one missing after boat capsizes in Bay of Bengal; lack of compensation for victims criticized.

Kolkata 

Eight fishermen have been killed and one is missing after a boat capsized 60 kilometres off Bay of Bengal when a tornado hit it on Friday (September 20). Police have rescued eight others from the trawler.

The trawler set out to sea on September 18 with 17 fishermen on board from Kwakdip in the Sundarban areas of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. It was caught in a storm and capsized. The bodies of the deceased were recovered only on Sunday (September 22).

Joy Krishna Haldar, general secretary of the United Fishermen Association of West Bengal, told The Hindu that he was deeply distressed at the loss of fellow fishermen. He said, “We have asked for compensation from the trawler owners who have a compulsory insurance for every fisherman on board. We have also asked for compensation from the State disaster management department.”

“But both Central and State governments don’t provide compensation to such victims. They keep blaming the responsibility on each other. At least during the Left era, we got some form of compensation. We are planning to make a claim with the State labour department as they had promised job to a family member of such victims,” said Mr. Haldar.

A week ago, on September 16, three trawlers with 49 fishermen went missing in Bay of Bengal. The fishermen, who couldn’t be traced for three days due to bad weather, were finally rescued despite the failure of the GPS tracking system which was hit by lightning.

During this incident, Mr. Haldar said, they pleaded with the Coast Guard and Navy to send out search parties for the missing fishermen. “But they did not help much and said the sea was too turbulent. They said their rescue vessels were in the high seas. So we sent out six of our trawlers to rescue our fellow fishermen,” he said.