Sheekha Bureau
Port Blair, Dec 14: Six fishermen of South Andaman area remain missing for nearly 18 days now. While Cyclone Vardah has disappeared, family members of these fishermen feel that these missing people might have fallen victim of the cyclone and are now demanding a search operation.
The Cyclone Vardah, unlike other cyclone got special attention of National Media this time, perhaps because of tourists who were stranded at Havelock and Neil Islands. Soon prominent news channel brought out news about Andaman with caption ‘Is Andaman Sinking?’, ‘will tourists survive Andaman’s Cyclone?’ etc. triggering a panic nationwide.
While there was flood like situation in many parts of North and Middle Andaman especial evacuation operation was launched by A & N Administration for Neil and Havelock Islands, which was quoted wrongly by National Media as ‘Rescue Operation’ triggering more panic.
While it is widely believed by public that during and after the Cyclone Vardah the main focus of Administration remained only on evacuation of tourists, it seems in genuine case like missing of six fishermen of Andaman, no such prime focus was paid by Administration. Even no press release of A & N Administration mentioned about these missing fishermen.
For Fishermen groups, remaining at sea for 25 to 30 days is common and in this case also everything was normal till the Cyclone Vardah hit Andamans. Family members of fishermen grew restless while the Cyclone caused damaged in Andaman but they remained hopeful that anyhow these fishermen will return their home soon. But when they didn’t, a missing report was lodged at P S Aberdeen on 10 December 2016.
The name of the missing fishermen are Mr. Mohd. Nazir, r/o Mannargahat, Mr. Usman Ali, r/o Mannargahat, Mr. Krishna Nag Mannargahat, Mr. Ravi Ram, r/o Kalatang, Balram, r/o Kalatang and Anand, r/o Write Myo, who were working in a fishing company at Junglighat.
The family members of these fishermen have now written a letter to the Lt. Governor demanding a proper search operation. Hope in this case also Administration and Defence will launch a massive search operation as the fishermen had ration items only for 10 days.
