The fishermen were rescued by the Marine Enforcement unit after their boat capsized and six have been shifted to a local hospital.
Fishermen trying to get the sunken boat out of the water (supplied)
In the third accident within a week, a fishing boat capsized in strong estuarian waves and tossed 16 fishermen into the choppy waters of Muthalapozhi, notorious for sinking vessels, around 6 am on Thursday, 3 August.
Three patrol boats of the Marine Enforcement Unit rushed to the scene and rescued all 16. Six of them were shifted to the Taluk Hospital at Chirayinkeezhu.
Accidents in Muthalapozhi Harbour — which is around 30 km from Kerala’s capital Thiruvananthapuram — have been claiming the lives of fishermen for long. In the last 10 years, the harbour has witnessed around 700 accidents and 69 deaths.
Thursday’s accident came amidst a state government assurance that dredging works would be taken up. The shallowness of the estuary mouth has been cited as the reason for strong waves capsizing boats.
At a high-level meeting chaired by state Fisheries Minister Saji Cheriyan on 31 July, the Adani Group had promised to take up the drudging works from Monday, The Group has been developing the Vizhinjam trans-shipment container terminal further down the coast.
It had signed a memorandum of understanding with the government to dredge Muthalapozhi, in return for allowing it to store granite required for the terminal project.
Minister Cheriyan had also assured the fishermen that the operations of the port would not be stopped.
As per the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the Harbour Engineering Department (HED) in 2018, Adani Vizhinjam Port Pvt Ltd (AVPPL) had the responsibility to dredge the navigation channel and maintain its depth at five metres until May 2024.
Additionally, AVPPL was required to remove rocks that had slipped into the navigation channel.
Neither dredging nor the removal of rocks was carried out by the Adani Group after 2021, resulting in sand accumulating on top of the rocks. This accumulation has caused an increase in wave intensity, posing a significant risk to motorised fishing boats, as sand brought in from both the sea and the lagoon worsened the situation.
A meeting between the state government and fishermen unions on 28 July concluded that unscientific construction of the harbour has been causing the accidents.
Even though the official figures showed the death number due to the accidents in Muthalapozhi harbour in the last 10 years as 69, locals have claimed that the number has already crossed three digits.
In the most recent accidents, two people fishermen were injured on 31 July, two people were critically injured on 29 July, and four people were killed on 10 July.
Following the 10 July incident, irate fishermen and their families led by the Latin Catholic Church entered into a verbal spat with ministers V Sivankutty, Antony Raju and GR Anil, who visited the Muthalapozhi area.
Suresh Fernandez, 58, Biju Antony, 45, Robin Edwin, 42, and Kunhumon Cycil, 48, were the fishermen killed in the 10 July incident. While Cycil’s body was found the same day, the remaining bodies were recovered about 48 hours later.
On 17 July, Cheriyan announced an ex gratia of ₹10 lakh each to the families of the four deceased fishermen. He also said that houses would be provided for the homeless, besides creating livelihood opportunities.
Debris of boats that had met with accidents could be seen left unattended in the surroundings, a grim reminder of the deceptive waters at the sea mouth.
The harbour, built in the early 2000s, has been in use even before it was commissioned in 2020.
Muthalapozhi is some 40 km north of Vizhinjam, where the fishers launched a movement some months ago against corporate major Adani Group’s mega seaport project, saying it would ruin their livelihood.
The Kerala government suppressed that agitation with the support of all political formations across the spectrum.
The fishermen have lost trust in the government. “We no longer trust any of the governments. They keep giving us false promises. We do not know how to proceed in the aftermath of the Vizhinjam struggle,” Valerian, an activist of the Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, said.
The frustration and disappointment were palpable as authorities have been repeatedly leaving fishermen with broken promises and a lack of meaningful action.
The Muthalapozhi Mini-Fishing Harbour has been a struggle for fisherfolk seeking safe and sustainable livelihoods. For decades, the concerns of the fishing and coir-dependent communities around Muthalapozhi have revolved around two critical issues: Fatal accidents during the monsoon season, and persistent waterlogging.
The latter issue was solved with the construction of the harbour. However, the issue of ensuring fishers’ safety and livelihoods remains unresolved.
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