No clue on Malpe fishing boat missing: Coast Guard continues search operation for fishermen
Malpe, December 24: The search operation for eight fishermen who were missing in the deep sea along with the boat continued on Monday, but no clues were found so far, sources said.
The family members of eight fishermen boat owner Badanidiyur Chandrashekar (40), Damodar Badanidiyur (40), Lakshman of Kumta (45), Sathish (35), Harish (28), Ramesh (30), Jogaiah (40) and Ravi Monkey (27) were panic. All of them had ventured into the sea in Suvarna Thribhuja boat on December 13 at 11 pm from Malpe port. After December 15 midnight, all of them were not reachable and missing. It is said that the boat was missing around 40-50 km Goa-Rathnagiri route from the sea shore.
As a missing case registered at Malpe police station, Fisheries department and police have informed the Mangaluru Coast Guard who in turn informed the Goa Coast Guard. Now, both Goa and Mangaluru Coast Guard teams have been searching for the missing boat and fishermen, but no information was available, sources said.
Fisheries department deputy director Parshwanath told Varthabharathi that ‘Mangaluru Coast Guard officials are in touch with us. They have continued their search operation. But no information is available so far”, he said.
Kidnap suspected
This is the first incident in Malpe port where fishermen were missing along with the boat. Some boats of Malpe have been searching in Goa-Rathnagiri sea range, but no information was received. If the boat is believed to be drowned, there must be some clues like diesel smell, cans or parts of the boat must have floated on the water. But there was no such clue in the sea. So, it is suspected that pirates might have kidnapped them, said Malpe Fishermen Association president Sathish Kunder.
CM contacted: Pramod Madhwaraj
Former fisheries minister Pramod Madhwaraj said that he has informed Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and DGP Neelamani N Raju over phone on missing of fishermen along with a fishing boat from Malpe port.
As the fishermen met Madhwaraj at his home and informed the incident, latter had contacted the CM and the DGP and urged them to take the issue seriously and constitute a special team to trace the fishermen shortly.
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Rajasthan: Tigress linked to 2 human kills returns to enclosure in MHTR after ‘brief escape’
Kota (Rajasthan) (PTI): The sighting of MT-8 or ‘Kankati’, a tigress linked to two fatal attacks on humans in neighbouring Ranthambore that escaped from its designated 82-sq km enclosure in the Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve here, triggered brief panic and halted traffic in the area.
However, the radio-collared tigress, which escaped on Tuesday morning, returned to its place in the forest later in the day, Muthu S, Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF), Mukundra Hills Tiger Reserve (MHTR), told PTI. Kankati gained notoriety for two human kills in the Ranthambore forest range earlier this year, after which she was relocated to the MHTR on June 19.
After spending around two months in a 21-hectare enclosure, Kankati was reintroduced into the wild on August 15 when she was released into the 82-sq km enclosure in the Dara forest area of MHTR.
At around 11 am on Tuesday, the tigress escaped from its designated enclosure and crossed the road, creating panic and halting traffic on both sides briefly.
Sensing the presence of the big cat, a few cattle hurriedly escaped from the spot, while some passersby, including a few cops, were seen filming the animal crossing the road with their mobile phones.
Muthu said the tigress crossed the Batwada road, which is a part of MHTR, before returning to her enclosure in the Dara forest range later in the day.
The tigress is radio-collared and tracked by three forest teams round the clock, the DCF said, adding that since the animal was under watch, the areas around the road were already cordoned off.
Forest teams remain particularly alert in the area after a tigress was run over by a train when it wandered from the Ranthambore forest range 20 years ago, the DCF said.
Wildlife enthusiast Brijesh Vijayvergiya, however, termed the movement of the tigress a result of “careless” monitoring and “inadequate” safety measures in the MHTR for which he held the forest department responsible.
“Taking a lesson from the accidental death of a tigress 20 years ago, the forest department should have erected fencing to prevent wild animals from crossing the road or the railway track. In the absence of fencing, the tigress Kankati ventured out and crossed the road, thus risking her life,” Vijayvergiya told PTI.
