On Sunday, May 7, scores of people were out with their families and loved ones for a fun evening at Thooval Theeram, a tourist attraction in Tanur of Kerala’s Malappuram district. Some of them got onto a tourist boat — advertised by its staff members with flashing lights and peppy music — for a short boat ride into the Purapuzha river. They were unlikely to have known that what they were boarding was actually a fishing vessel illegally converted into a double-decker tourist boat. They barely made it a few hundred metres along the river before the overloaded boat capsized, killing at least 22 people including 13 children. Sajid TP, a local resident who saw the boat being pulled out, said the rescue operation was harrowing to witness. “It was hard to watch bodies of small children being pulled out of the boat. This is the biggest tragedy of its kind our area has witnessed,” Sajid said.
As soon as the boat overturned around 7.15 pm on Sunday, fisherfolk and local residents who were present at the site began initial rescue efforts. Police and other departments soon joined the search and rescue operation, and by 2 am, 22 bodies were retrieved from the river. The boat is believed to have been carrying over 35 people, and five persons managed to escape immediately with no injuries. So far, 22 bodies have been retrieved from the river. Ten persons were rescued alive and admitted to a hospital, and four of them are in a critical condition. TNM spoke to a few local residents, and police and rescue officers, to understand how the accident happened and how rescue efforts have progressed.
Shivan, Vasu, Rasheed, and Bavas, all residents of Parappanangadi and neighbouring regions, said that the initial rescue efforts were made difficult by poor visibility. Later, with the arrival of the fire and rescue services personnel and the Navy, additional equipment was brought in, they said. “But a big part of the rescue work was done by the fisherfolk themselves,” said Shivan.
Prakasan, a fisherman who had been casting his net near Thooval Theeram when the boat began its journey, said that the vessel appeared to have been filled beyond capacity, and seemed to be tilted to one side from the start. “As soon as the boat tilted sideways, it should have stopped at the nearest bank. However, it still continued its journey, only to overturn shortly after. Had the employees stopped the boat as soon as it first tilted, this tragedy could have been averted,” he said. “As soon as the boat overturned, it was certain that there would be casualties,” Prakasan added.
The boat, which began its journey near the estuary at Thooval Theeram, travelled around 300 metres along the Purapuzha river before it capsized near Mariyapuram. Anjali PB, whose house is the nearest to the accident spot, said that she and her domestic worker Ambika heard loud cries for help, and ran out to find the boat turning over. “The cries for help were loud and disturbing. It was a very difficult situation, as we could not do anything to save them. We quickly alerted others, and onlookers had jumped into the water by then,” she said.
Parappanangadi fire and rescue officers Sajeesh and Vimal, who were the first official rescue team to reach the spot, said that their efforts were made strenuous by the huge crowd that had gathered as soon as the news got out. Their unit has been at the accident site since Sunday night. “The last body was recovered well after midnight. It was a ten-year-old boy,” said Sajeesh.
“The large crowd that gathered on the Tanur bank made it difficult for ambulances and rescue equipment to reach the river. The vehicles that the crowds arrived in also blocked the roads in many places,” Sajeesh added.
While well-intentioned local residents plunged into the river in an effort to rescue passengers at the earliest, Sajeesh and Vimal said that it only added to the confusion. “There was no clarity about the number of passengers stuck in the capsized boat. On top of that, the large crowd made communication quite difficult,” they said, adding that the mobile network in the area was also weak, which further hindered the efforts. “Divers found it difficult to enter the boat due to the large crowds gathered in the water,” they added. The two officers said there was no doubt that the accident was caused by overloading the boat.
On Sunday night, the boat was pulled out of the water using large ropes and a JCB machine at the Parappanangadi bank of the river. The area is unreachable by road from the Mariyapuram bank, which is where the boat was pulled towards. The JCB had to reach the site through a grove of coconut trees. Pulling the boat towards the Tanur bank was impossible as the land was too slushy, local residents said. Several persons engaged in rescue efforts were also injured when the boat was pulled up and its glass windows broken to pull passengers out.
“Lifeless bodies of small children were carried from the boat through the small path on one side of our house. It was a distressing sight,” Anjali said. Her family has been awake since the accident, offering water and a resting place for local residents and officers involved in the rescue mission.
Malappuram Sub Collector Sachin Kumar Yadav told TNM that the search operation would continue under the joint efforts of the Navy, fire and rescue services department and the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF). The rescue efforts were briefly halted on Monday afternoon for lunch, and resumed by 3 pm with an additional Navy team joining the efforts.
Krishnan Lal, the Tanur sub-inspector of police, said that local residents have raised suspicion that a child is still missing. “No family has come forward to report a missing child, and no official complaint has been received in this regard. However, we are continuing the search to clear all doubts and ensure that no body has been missed,” he said.