On May 7, at 7.30 in the evening, fisherman Kunnummal Saidalavi was relaxing at home in Puthankadappuram when he got a call. A friend, who sounded frantic, was on the line. He told Saidalavi that a boat had capsized in the Poorappuzha estuary in Tanur. Filled with dread knowing that his wife and four children were among the passengers, Saidalavi rushed to the estuary, located about 10 km away. On reaching the bank of the river, he clambered into a vessel to help in rescue efforts. While he searched the dark waters anxiously, a diver suddenly thrust a body into his arms. It was his 13-year-old daughter, Shafna. Saidalavi’s wails pierced the darkness.
For a minute, even those scrambling through the rescue efforts stopped. “Those wails made us all weep. It was too much to bear,” says Harshad Cheruvath, a resident of the area. “He was crying saying, ‘This is my child; the others are in the water. I can’t leave without them,’” he recalls.
Just about an hour earlier, the boat, named Atlantic, carrying about 40 passengers, had capsized in Poorappuzha, a tributary of Kadalundipuzha. The tragedy took place near a newly developed tourist spot along the coast. Cheruvath says the local people and personnel from the Department of Fire and Rescue Services struggled to reach the passengers trapped inside the boat, which was resting on the muddy riverbed. Twenty-two people, including 15 children and five women, lost their lives in the incident near Thooval Theeram beach. All the passengers were from Malappuram district. Nearly half the passengers who lost their lives were from fisher families.
