india

Updated: Apr 25, 2020 21:58 IST

Four days after 27 migrant fishermen from Odisha and Andhra Pradesh arrived on a fishing dinghy on the border between the two states after traversing over 1000 km on sea from Chennai, another group of 38 fishermen who took a similar route to reach Odisha’s in coastal district of Ganjam Saturday evening after spending 6 days on sea.

With inter-state transport stopped in the wake of national lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic and borders sealed, the group of 38 fishermen comprising 27 from Odisha and 11 from Andhra Pradesh decided to buy a fishing boat for Rs 2 lakh after fishing operations were stopped. Packing in some rice and other eatables, the fishermen hopped onto the boat on April 20 and started their journey back to Odisha.

On Saturday evening, when the fishermen reached the Patisonapur beach of Ganjam district after covering over 1000 km on sea, they looked dehydrated and famished.

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“We need water. We shared one bottle of drinking water among us in the last 24 hours,” one of the fishermen told the waiting team of policemen and officials of Ganjam district administration who took them to a quarantine facility at a cyclone shelter after initial medical screening. The district administration also collected the Aadhar card details and mobile numbers.

Ganjam district collector Vijay Amrit Kulange said the administration had prior information about the journey of the fishermen by sea.

“They were under stress due to the rising number of Corona cases and had run out of food. Now that they have reached Odisha coast after a long journey, we will put them in quarantine for next 14 days,” said Kulange.

Narrating their experience, the fishermen said they were apprehensive of rising Covid cases in Tamil Nadu. “After fishing operations were stopped on March 15 due to Corona scare, the fishing merchant we worked for said he would not be able to pay us till the lockdown was over. Initially we thought we could ride out the lockdown with whatever money we had. But when Modi(Prime Minister) announced extension of the lockdown till May 3 we were apprehensive of going hungry. We were also scared of rise in coronavirus cases in Chennai. But there was no transport available. So we pooled in around Rs 2 lakh and bought a mechanised boat,” said Nagaraj Shetty, a 24-year-old fisherman of Odisha.

Though the boat wasn’t big enough for the group, the fishermen decided that it was their best possible vehicle for escape. “We had packed rice and some dal for cooking on the way. We had brought some biscuits also, but all that was hardly enough as we did not want to overload the boat. We were also scared of being caught by the Coast Guard and the marine police,” said Shetty.

The fishermen used the GPS in their mobile phones to keep track of the route and also watched the stars. The fishermen had also Indian tricolour flying from a pole on their boat in case they ran into a Coast Guard ship.

Sub-divisional police officer of Berhampur, Jayant Mohapatra said hundreds of fishermen from Ganjam work in the fishing sector of Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Goa. “Though we are keeping an eye on the coast, we apprehend some more fishermen from the State may take the sea route to come back to Odisha,” he said.

On April 20, a group of 27 fishermen comprising 10 from Odisha had arrived at a beach of Srikulam district in Andhra Pradesh. Though the fishermen initially wanted to anchor at Patisonapur in Ganjam district, they were stopped by police in Andhra Pradesh. The 27 are now housed in a quarantine facility of Srikakulam district where they will stay till May 3.

The arrival of the 38 fishermen by sea came a couple of days after the State government started an online portal for over 7.5 lakh migrant workers of the State wishing to return home after lifting of lockdown on May 3. The government said those migrant workers stranded in other State and wishing to return to their homes in Odisha have to provide their Aadhaar number and mobile number while registering on the (https://covid19.odisha.gov.in) portal.

The person after arriving in Odisha will be inked with indelible stamp on their hands and sent to 14-day official quarantine being set up in around 7000 gram panchayats and urban local bodies.