Five fishermen went missing after a trawler with 18 people on board capsized in the Bay of Bengal near Kendo island of West Bengal on August 19, an officer-bearer of a major fishermen’s association said.
The island’s location marks the end of the Sundarbans area.
Kakdwip Sub-Divisional Officer Aranya Banerjee said that a Coast Guard team will go to the island on August 20 morning for a rescue operation.
The sea is choppy in the area now as a depression has intensified into a deep depression bringing heavy rain and squalls.
The trawler, FB Satyanarayan, with 18 fishermen on board, was returning to Kakdwip from the Bay of Bengal when it capsized.
“Though the incident happened in the early hours of Friday, we got the information much later,” General Secretary of West Bengal Fishermen’s Association, Bijan Maity, said.
He said that 13 of those 18 people were rescued by other trawlers and five are still missing.
The rescued fishermen are being taken to a hospital in Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas district, Mr. Maity said.
The depression in the Bay of Bengal intensified into a deep depression earlier in the day. The system crossed the coast between Odisha’s Balasore and Sagar Island of West Bengal in the evening, the IMD said.
