Vikramaditya
Port Blair, Jan 13: The body of Late Ramesh Mandal, a boatman from Baratang Island, has been finally recovered by two different teams of PS Bambooflat after nearly 30 hour long struggle, which has been highly appreciated by many dingy operators.
According to sources from Havelock boat operators, after a dinghy accident on 9th Jan 2021, nearly 500 LPG cylinders got drifted in sea near North Bay and on 10 Jan 2021 Mr. Ramesh Mandal and other had gone for collecting the LPG Cylinders during which Mr. Ramesh Mandal had gone missing.
Huge efforts were made by the private boat operators and Andaman and Nicobar police to trace out the body and finally yesterday the body was located near Madhuban area but as the area was only accessible from Kalachattan area of South Andaman the team could not recover the body. Due to high swells in sea the area was not accessible by boat.
Hence, as per boat operators a joint team of forest and police was sent to Madhuban area by jungle route from Kalachattan area. To reach the spot, the team had to walk nearby four hours through jungle.
Finally when the team reached the area they found that the body could not be recovered even from shore until and unless sea becomes calm and also it would be difficult to carry the body on shoulder at night through the jungle route.
Hence, even without sufficient food the team halted in jungle over the night. Morning another team from PS Bambooflat tried to reach the spot with the help of a dinghy but due to high waves the team had to get down a North Bay and walk for nearly two kilometer through jungle to meet the first team, today morning.
Finally both the teams, acted together and recovered the body from sea this morning and brought the body through jungle route upto North Bay and from North Bay the body was brought to Port Blair via dinghy.
According to boat operators the body reached Port Blair by 3.00 PM in late afternoon.
This is an extra ordinary story of committed efforts put by policemen in many such occasions of crisis. In this case some staffs of Forest Department were also involved it is learnt.
Boatmen from Havelock and Port Blair have highly appreciated the efforts of Andaman and Nicobar Police and the two teams of PS Bambooflat for bringing back the body to Port Blair.
