In what depicts human survival instinct in the worst adversities, a group of 20 Bangladeshi fishermen fought marauding sea, hunger for a fortnight,

and miraculously escaped from the claws of death before being rescued by local people in Astaranga coast in Puri district.

The marine fishermen, who had undertaken the sea voyage on 7 December from the Bangladesh coast, had gone without food for a week during the course of the worst nightmare of their life after the fishing vessel had developed a technical snag and was rendered unfit to move ahead.

On 11 December, the craft had developed a technical snag four days after the voyage. The vessel drifted along with the seawater as food stock at the vessels was exhausted on 19 December. They fought hunger, dark sea waters as the vessels marched into Indian coastal waters.

With nothing left to consume for survival, the distressed fishermen were forced to drink sea waters simply to survive. The crews of the Bangla vessel had also lost the communication link as the walkie-talkie and mobile phones had turned defunct without power backup. The mobile phones

As luck would have it, local fishermen boarded on a mechanized vessel sighted the directionless movement of the distressed vessel. As the distressed fishermen screamed for survival, the local fishermen inched close to the Bangla vessel to learn the plight of the crews of the neighbouring country.

As they spoke in Bengali and narrated their tale of woes, the local fishermen near Astaranga coast, well-versed with Bengali verbal communication, lent hand to rescue them. The Astaranga fishermen deployed two fishing trawls to tow the Bangla vessel to the safety of Paradip fishing harbor.

“As the rescued fishermen are Bangladeshis, they have been detained for questioning. From preliminary inquiry, it has however been found that they did not willfully infiltrate into Indian coastal waters. As their vessel had reportedly developed technical snags, they might have entered India’s coastal territory”, said Additional Superintendent of Police, Paradip, NImai Charan Sethy.

The State marine police, coast guard, custom, and navy personnel will jointly inquire into antecedents of the suspected foreign nationals in accordance with the law of the land, he added.