40 trawlers with 640 fishermen missing in Bay of Bengal

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, August 4, 2014:  Around 40 trawlers with 640 fishermen have gone missing in Bay of Bengal near Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas district in east India on Sunday night after a storm.

The trawlers, each carrying 16 fishermen, had gone to the sea for fishing a few days ago, but contact between the liaison unit of the Association at Kakdwip and them was snapped during a storm on Sunday night, the state government aided Association’s Secretary Jaykrishna Halder said.

The fishing trawlers left the Kakdwip-Frazergunj river coast in South 24 Parganas on Sunday and did not return after a storm.

Efforts are on to locate them and the Coast Guard has been alerted, Sunderban Development Minister Manturam Pakhira said.

A storm, of which there were no warnings from the weather office or the local authorities, hit the region 100 km south-east of the Sunderbans coast of Kakdwip.

Meanwhile, two other trawlers-’Suryanarayan’ and ’Maharudra’- capsized near Jambu Dwip in the Bay of Bengal during the storm last evening.

Of the 32 fishermen on board, 25 were rescued and seven others are missing, Halder said. The rescued fishermen are being treated at a local hospital.

Five other trawlers set off from Raidighi in the same district managed to reach Dhamra Port in Odisha. All the fishermen were safe, he said.