Twenty-seven Bangladeshi fishermen who were adrift at sea on a wooden trawler for two days were rescued by the Indian Coast Guard on Thursday.
The Bangladeshi fishing trawler suffered an engine failure and its rudder and steering system had also stopped working. It had drifted into Indian waters, a coast guard officer said.
The trawler was near the Indo-Bangladesh International Maritime Border Line (IMBL) on the Bay of Bengal, around 131km away from the Sunderbans delta, the officer said.
The crew members had started to ration their food and water as they had lost contact with the rest of the Bangladeshi fishing trawlers.
The Indian Coast Guard ship Amogh, a fast patrol vessel that was on routine patrol from Paradip port, spotted the vessel and got in touch with the crew, said the officer.
“The fishermen told our personnel they had suffered steering gear damage and engine problem and were adrift at sea for a couple of days,” the officer said.
A technical team of the Indian Coast Guard boarded the trawler and identified the defect. They found that the rudder was completely damaged and could not be repaired at sea.
The coast guard personnel enquired if the crew would need any medical assistance. “There were no injuries. We gave them food and water to supplement their supplies,” the officer said.
"As the condition of the sea and the weather were conducive, we decided that the boat would be towed towards Bangladesh and handed over to either another Bangladeshi fishing boat or to a Bangladesh Coast Guard ship, in accordance with the memorandum of understanding between the coast guards of the two countries," the officer said.
The Indian Coast Guard regional headquarters at Calcutta established communication with its Bangladeshi counterpart.
The Bangladesh Coast Guard ship Kamaruzzaman was deployed. It neared the IMBL on Thursday evening and rescued the fishing trawler and its crew.