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Crew escape as boat battered by Maha sinks

Ten fishermen were lucky to survive when their boat that was battered by Cyclone Maha sunk in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday afternoon. The men were rescued by a boat that was towing the sinking boat and reached the Thengapattanam fishing harbor in Kanyakumari district on Thursday evening. The crew was taken to a hospital for checkup and some of them were administered intravenous fluids.



Owner of the boat N Selvaraj, 39, of Neerody in Kanyakumari district who returned with the nine others told TOI that he purchased the boat for Rs 65 lakh about four years ago and has to repay Rs 50 lakh more that he borrowed from money lenders.

On October 13, the boat named ‘Arputha Matha’ with 10 fishermen set off from Munambam harbor near Ernakulam in Kerala. Alexander, Savariyar and Mary Vincent of Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, Kumararaja, Vasudevan and Mosy of Nagapattinam district, Govindan and Kannadasan of Ramanathapuram district and M Mariappan of Tuticorin district were the other men on board.

They were fishing near southern Lakshadweep Islands on October 25 when they received the warning of the fast approaching severe cyclonic storm ‘Maha’. Their boat was among the five deep-sea fishing vessels from Kanyakumari that reached Kalpeni Island and anchored. “On the night of October 30, the gale at the speed of 110 kmph battered the boat, while we were provided shelter in a school,” Selvaraj said.

The boat was detached from the anchor and stuck in the sand in the strong wind. The boat was badly damaged and it could not be pulled back into the sea.

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