Sixteen days after cyclone Ockhi threw the district out of shape, Kanyakumari collector, Sajjan Singh R Chavan has said that there is still no news about 400 missing fishermen from the coastal hamlets and villages of this district and that a search is on for them.According to him, 35 fishermen who went fishing in 13 fibre boats and country boats and 365 fishermen who went fishing in 34 mechanised boats are yet to reach the shore. He said this after supervising the counting of affected fishermen in Neerody, Marthandanthurai, Vallavilai, Iraiviputhanthurai, Chinnathurai, Thoothoor, Poothurai and Erayumanthurai. The Indian Coast Guard in a release stated that they are continuing search and rescue efforts off the Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Lakshadweep and Minicoy coasts up to 625km. They have deployed 25 ships, three aircraft and a helicopter for search of missing fishermen along the west coast of India. ICGS C-144 recovered a body about 29km northwest of Beypore Lt on Thursday afternoon and handed it over to fisheries department officials. The ship also initiated recovery of a body by Koinandy coastal police the same day. The release added that ICGS Vaibhav, which embarked with seven fishermen on board is continuing joint search operation off Kerala coast. Earlier in the day, chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami announced a livelihood relief package of Rs 5,000 per family for 1,524 tribal families that were affected by Ockhi.
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