The Indian Coast Guard (ICG) along with its Bangladesh counterpart had recently rescued 13 fishermen who had been lost in the sea after they had ventured into the Bay of Bengal in rough weather on a fishing boat from Kakdwip area of South 24 Parganas district in West Bengal.
However, 31 fishermen who had similarly ventured into the Bay of Bengal on two different fishing boats despite rough weather conditions from the Namkhana area of West Bengal are still missing and are yet to be traced.
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These fishermen had ventured into the sea without paying heed to the warnings of the rough weather conditions which had been issued by authorities.
Due to the rough weather conditions, the thirteen fishermen who were on the boat ‘FB Tara Shankar’ were drifted into the area of Bangladesh. The boat had also developed a technical snag.
After getting a whiff of the thirteen fishermen’s whereabouts, the ICG regional headquarters contacted the Bangladesh Coast Guard (BCG) West Zone headquarter at Mongla to locate them.
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In order to locate the missing fishermen, one Bangladesh Naval ship on patrol was diverted and one BCG ship sailed from Mongla harbor for search and rescue.
The boat ‘FB Tara Shankar’ was located by the Bangladesh Naval ship near the Mongla Fairway Buoy on Saturday.
The ship then brought the boat to the mouth of the Pussur river in Bangladesh.
Over 100 fishing boats from Kakdwip area had been found near the Pussur river mouth.
The fishermen of these boats claimed that they had taken shelter there due to the rough weather conditions.
However, all these boats along with the captured one had been guided by the Bangladesh Naval ship for sailing through the coastal route westward up to the Haribhanga river.
The ICG and BCG had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to help each other and work together to ensure safety of people lost in north Bay of Bengal.