This story is from June 3, 2019

20 fishermen from TN, Kerala and AP stranded at mid sea after their boats suffer engine failure

Twenty fishermen from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, who went fishing from Kochi on May 2, have been stranded at mid sea off the Mitra Island in the Lakshadweep after engines of their two boats failed.
20 fishermen from TN, Kerala and AP stranded at mid sea after their boats suffer engine failure
(Representative image)
MADURAI: Twenty fishermen from Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, who went fishing from Kochi on May 2, have been stranded at mid sea off the Mitra Island in the Lakshadweep after engines of their two boats failed.
The stranded boats are Star of Sea-I (registration number IND/TN/MM-5169) and Star of Sea-II (registration number IND/TN/MM-5557) owned by S Shibu (and family) from Chinnathurai village in Kanyakumari district.
The boats had 20 fishermen including 12 from Tamil Nadu, six from Andhra Pradesh and two from Kerala.
“On May 18, the first boat’s engine failed and could not be restarted. Since then it was towed by the second boat. But on Sunday (June 2) the engine of the towing boat also failed,” said Jose Bilbin the president of Thoothoor Fishermen Cooperative Society. The men on board faced difficulty in getting help as there were hardly any fishing boats engaged in deep sea fishing due to the ban on fishing in the west coast from June 1.
Representatives of the fishermen fraternity said they had contacted the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).
Around 7pm, the Indian Coast Guard ship Vikram started towing the two stranded boats from the place where they were stranded in the Arabian Sea. While they initially planned to tow it to the Mitra Island in the south of Lakshadweep and 23 nautical miles (45 kms) away from where they were stranded, based on the request of fishermen they have started proceeding to Androth Island that is about 100 nautical miles (185 km) away and in the Northern part of Lakshadweep.

South Asian Fishermen Fraternity (SAFF)general secretary Churchil and Thoothoor fishermen cooperative society president Jose Bilbin said that the boats would reach the Androth Island around Tuesday afternoon and this island is closer to Cochin compared to the Mitra island.
SAFF and Thoothoor Fishermen Cooperative Society have appealed to the central government, the fisheries department and officials concerned to bring the men back to the shore along with those boats.
“Since there is no network connectivity where they are stranded they are using a fibre boat to get range and communicate with us,” Churchil said.
The stranded fishermen from Tamil Nadu on the boats are S Shibu, A Denson and A Richard of Chinnathurai in Kanyakumari district, R Bala, T Krishnakumar and S Harihara Sudhan from Nagapattinam district, P Kalimuthu, R Sathyamoorthy, C Murugan, S Muniandi and M Lingan from Ramanathapuram district and C Vadivel of Batlagundu in Dindigul district.
Other stranded fishermen are J Jose and C Anto from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and Kambal Ambaro, Varidhav Chattibabu, Malladi Veerababu, Kambalu Tatalu, Malladi Satyam and Mannadi Veerababu from Andhra Pradesh.
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