Kolkata, July 13 (IANS). Nine fishermen have been confirmed dead, while six others are still missing in a boat accident in the Bay of Bengal near Sunderbans in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district. Expressing grief over the accident, the Vice President of India expressed condolences to the families of the victims and wished for the speedy recovery of the injured.
Vice President CP. Radhakrishnan expressed grief over the accident. A post issued on the Vice President’s official social media platform ‘
According to officials, the fishing boat ‘FB Maa Kali’, which went missing earlier this month, was traced on Sunday. A joint team of police, forest department and Indian Coast Guard discovered the sunken boat in Raktachar area near Chulkathi forest. When the boat was taken out and searched, bodies of nine fishermen were recovered from it.
According to the information, this boat had gone into the sea with 15 fishermen from Shankarpur Fisheries Port in East Midnapore district on July 2. Contact with the boat was lost after July 5 due to bad weather. After this, a joint search operation was started by the police, coast guard, forest department and fishermen organizations under the leadership of Chitrak Bhattacharya, deputy field director of Sundarban Tiger Reserve.
Officials said that no trace of the six fishermen has been found yet. The recovered bodies have been sent to Kakdweep Sub-Divisional Hospital for post-mortem. A massive operation was launched again on Monday to search for the missing fishermen.
Minister of State for Sundarban Affairs Dipankar Jana visited the spot after the boat was brought ashore and reviewed the relief and search operations.
–IANS
SCH/ABM
