Seven fishermen from Tamil Nadu have died after their fishing boat capsized off the coast of Andhra Pradesh during severe cyclonic storm Murasu, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu confirmed on Friday, as search teams continue to look for the two men still missing.
Five bodies were recovered on Thursday and two more on Friday, officials told the chief minister, after the boat washed ashore at Kothapatnam beach in Prakasam district. Search operations have been under way for three days, and Naidu has directed officials to intensify the effort to trace the two fishermen who remain unaccounted for.
The nine men, all from Chennai, had set out from the Kasimedu fishing harbour on 29 October aboard a mechanised trawler for a ten-day fishing trip near Nizampatnam in Andhra Pradesh. When Cyclone Murasu approached the coast, fishing boats from Tamil Nadu took shelter at Andhra Pradesh ports, and the trawler anchored safely inside the Nizampatnam fishing harbour.
On 3 November, the nine fishermen aboard the Nizampatnam-based boat decided to sail south towards Ramayapatnam to join their fellow fishermen from Tamil Nadu, without informing the authorities in either state. Their boat ran into the full force of the cyclone and capsized amid strong winds and heavy rain.
At around 3am on 3 November, a nearby boat received a distress call from the trawler. The crew reported that the engine had failed, water was entering the engine room, and the navigation system had broken down. The neighbouring boat, itself struggling to pump water out of its engine room, could not reach them. The trawler drifted about 20 nautical miles before it overturned.
Cyclone Murasu crossed the coast between Nellore and Narsapur, close to Ongole, on Tuesday, bringing winds of 100 to 110 kilometres per hour, gusting up to 120. The storm had been tracked for days before landfall, and the Tamil Nadu fisheries department had issued a cyclone warning on 31 October asking all fishing boats to take shelter in nearby harbours.
The boat was spotted near the Kothapatnam coast on the evening of 4 November, and five bodies washed ashore along the beach the following day. The bodies were taken to the Government General Hospital in Ongole for post-mortem examination. Three of the dead have been identified as S. Mohan, A. Murugan and C. Vijayakanth; the identities of the others are still being verified. The trawler was skippered by Pakkirisamy, also known as Suriya, 49.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay condoled the deaths and announced compensation of Rs 7 lakh for the family of each fisherman, with Rs 2 lakh to be paid immediately as relief. Tamil Nadu Fisheries Minister N. Marie Wilson contacted the Andhra Pradesh government on Thursday and sent a team of officials, along with family members of the missing fishermen, to Ongole.
The search is being carried out by the Indian Coast Guard, the marine police and local fishermen, with the Tamil Nadu fisheries department also seeking aerial search assistance from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre. Prakasam District Collector P. Raja Babu, who visited Kothapatnam to inspect the operation, said the crew had sailed without informing the boat owner or officials, and that the vessel is believed to have capsized because of the cyclone.
The tragedy has set off a political row in Tamil Nadu, where opposition parties have criticised the ruling administration over offshore emergency alerts and communication delays, questioning whether the deaths could have been prevented. The state government has said the focus remains on the search and on supporting the families.
For the families in Kasimedu, the wait continues. The trawler's owner and the relatives of the two missing men are in Ongole, hoping the search teams find them. Officials say the operation will continue until the remaining fishermen are traced, but with the boat already ashore and days passed since the capsize, the chances of finding survivors are fading.
The deaths are a grim reminder of the risks faced by small-scale fishermen when cyclones strike the Bay of Bengal. Murasu was the second cyclone to hit the region in quick succession, and while early warnings and harbour shelters saved many boats, the nine men who left the safety of Nizampatnam harbour were caught in open water at the worst possible moment.
