With about 650 fishermen still missing a month after the Ockhi cyclone hit the southern Indian coast, hundreds of families spent Christmas and New Year in lingering hope of their return, but optimism is fading fast.
The federal government has put the number of missing fishermen at 661. Federal Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman told parliament on Dec. 27 that 261 from Kerala and 400 from Tamil Nadu are missing. No one has been rescued since the announcement.
Official government records show 76 people died in the Nov. 29-Dec. 5 tragedy in the southern tip of India covered by the states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
“It indeed was a very sad Christmas and New Year for us. With children waiting for their fathers, and wives for their hus-bands, how will families cele-brate?” asked Robert Panippillai, leader of a volunteer group that works in the coastal areas near Thiruvananthapuram (formerly Trivandrum), Kerala’s capital.
