Sheekha Bureau
Diglipur, July 10: A 30 yrs old Chennai resident died at Ross & Smith Islands of Diglipur on 7th July due to drowning. The death now raises many questions regarding safety of tourists and locals.
The Tourism Department initiated a safety drive last year in which seven life guards were deployed for the safety of Tourists at Ross & Smith. They were provided with adequate training as well as safety gears.
Life buoys and life jackets were kept at sea shores for handy. On 7th July seven tourists arrived at Aerial bay jetty and after obtaining permit they went to Ross & Smith Island on a fibre boat at 7.30.am. The boat carried seven tourists and just one Life Guard and boat driver.
After reaching they went into the sea. Out of seven life guards only one reached to the Ross & Smith Island and remaining six were at Aerial Bay jetty.
As there were only few tourists available for Ross Islands, boat operators were preparing one more boat with one more life guard and there were planning to keep all other five Life Guards at Aerial bay jetty.
As per the Life Guards policy, Life guards along with police staff and a medical staff also have to be retained at Ross & Smith Island. But it was not regularly done. There is no arrangement for the lifeguards, police and Medical staff to ply to the R & S Islands.
Moreover fibre boat owners are often more interested in taking tourists rather than safety staffs.
In Andaman Sheekha’s first report there were two life guards at Ross and Smith Islands on the day of accident but as more reports poured in, it has now become clear that there were only one life guard and the other guy involved in rescue work was boat operator.
Had more life guards reached on that day to Ross & Smith islands, along with Santosh Kumar, deceased Ram Kumar could have been saved from drowning as at that time only one Life guard was available at the beach.
By the time the other person, who was operator of the fibre boat, went to other shore of the beach, started the boat and reached the spot after taking U trun, Ram Kumar already went deep into waters.
The boat driver first carried the Santosh Kumar then Ram Kumar but later could not be saved with all their efforts.
The NITI Aayog has identified the Ross & Smith Island as one of the Three Islands for the first phase of the development after the Aayog made a presentation to the Prime Minister about the Islands.
As already forest personnel are deputed at Ross & Smith Islands the Tourist Department, Police Department and Health Department should co-operate each other for the full proof safety of the Tourists.
When we are saying “Athithi Devo Bava “we should follow the words and the theme and take concrete steps for the safety of the tourists in reality.
Meanwhile, the Zilla Parishad Member of Diglipur, Mr. P Srinivas Rao has demanding a thorough inquiry in this matter and said that such incidents will only bring bad name for Andamans.
When contacted the Director of Tourism, Mr. Amit Anand said that in this case, the accident took place on an area, where tourists usually never go.
“This was an accident and life guards had warned both tourists not to go there but they said that they did not listen. The matter is under investigation and until and unless complete report comes to me, it will not be fair to comment anything more now,” he said.
