Visakhapatnam (AP): Tens of thousands of people dependent on fishing and related activities in the port city devastated by cyclone hudhud are staring at uncertainty as large number boats are either damaged or sunk.
To make matters worse, the fishing boat operators and fishermen had no insurance cover and they are now looking at government support to bail them out.
“As many as 50,000 people who are dependent on fishing and related activities are now looking at uncertainty as about 400 boats have been damaged in the cyclone fury and 72 sunk without a trace,” Andhra Pradesh Mechanised Fishing Boat Operators Association president P C Appa Rao told PTI.
The normally bustling fishing harbour here, which does a business of around Rs 1.5 crore a day, seemed to be in shambles as the area was strewn with damaged boats and debris, with fishermen in grief.
“We had stopped venturing into sea for fishing three days before the cyclone hit, as per the warning issued by the government. Now, we aren’t sure how long it will take again to resume out activities,” he said.
“We request the government to give us new boats or bear the cost to repair damages. Each boat costs anywhere between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh,” he said.
The Association’s secretary, Mugi Ramudu, said human losses were averted as the government had alerted the communities well in advance.
Appa Rao said the operators and fishermen had stopped paying premium to insurance companies as they had posed many questions at the time of claims earlier.
While admitting that there could be one or two false claims in the past, it cannot be the reason to avoid all claims by insurance companies, he said.
With supply chain infrastructure such as cold storage damaged, Ramudu wondered what purpose would it serve even if they went for “hunting” (fishing) now.
It costs about Rs 20,000 to operate a boat per trip but there is no guarantee that it would return with a good catch, he said.
As many as 18 families (directly and indirectly) depend on revenue generated by operating one boat, according to an estimate.
As manual boats are also not being operated, fish supplies to markets are expected in a month’s time, some fishermen said, even as their plight looked pathetic.
