The Indian Coast Guard rescued 31 fishermen stranded on a fishing boat in the Arabian Sea after it had been adrift for 11 days due to a steering gear failure.
Indian Coast Guard Commander of Western Region A Rajasekhar said, "Though infiltration through sea is possible, the Coast Guard is patrolling the coastline by air and water to thwart any potential threat."
Sources said the chopper, which was on a training flight, crashed as it began taking off from the helipad.
He had taken charge as the 25th director general of the Indian Coast Guard on July 19 last year.
A Coast Guard ALH MK III helicopter conducted a medical evacuation of 26-year-old Ajin, a Tamil Nadu fisherman, from his boat Jazeera 40 nautical miles off Beypore.
Two US nationals have been arrested in Kochi, India, for allegedly flying a drone near the Coast Guard Headquarters, a restricted zone. The tourists, unaware of the local regulations, were later released with a notice to appear for investigation.
Eight crew members were rescued from a sinking ship off Beypore in Kerala on Saturday by the Coast Guard.
A Liberian cargo ship carrying 640 containers, including 13 hazardous cargoes, has sunk off the coast of Kerala, raising concerns of environmental damage. The ship, MSC ELSA 3, capsized and sank in the early hours of May 25 after listing rapidly. The three remaining crew members were rescued by the Indian Navy. The Indian Coast Guard is monitoring the situation for any oil spills and has positioned a ship with pollution response equipment at the scene. The ship was carrying 84.44 MT of diesel and 367.1 MT of furnace oil, in addition to the hazardous cargo. The Kerala State Disaster Management Authority has cautioned the public against touching any cargo containers or oil spills that may wash ashore.
As fire continued to rage on and explosions rocked the Singapore-flagged ship off the Kerala coast on Tuesday, authorities issued an oil spill advisory while a Chinese engineer rescued from the burning vessel suffered critical injuries.
There is no word yet on the progress of rescue operations for the accommodation barge SS-3 and the Sagar Bhushan oil rig.
"On August 16 night, just as we reached an abandoned government hospital for rest after four days of non-stop work, the local police officer, villagers and NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) officials came to us, asking to save the life of a woman who had just given birth," he said.
Of the 22 crew members on board the ship, MV Wan Hai 503, 18 have abandoned the vessel and are being rescued by Indian Navy and Coast Guard assets, he said.
Containers from a Liberian cargo ship that sank off the Kerala coast have started washing ashore, prompting authorities to urge the public to stay away from them. The ship carried 13 hazardous cargos, including calcium carbide, which reacts with seawater to release highly flammable acetylene gas. The Indian Coast Guard is leading pollution response efforts and monitoring the spread of the oil slick.
The Kerala State Pollution Control Board (KPCB) is on high alert after a Liberian vessel carrying hazardous cargo sank off the Kerala coast. While no calcium carbide containers have washed ashore yet, a thin layer of oil spill has been detected. The KPCB is working to contain the spill and prevent it from reaching the shore, but rough conditions at sea have hampered efforts to spray dispersants. The board is also taking steps to prevent the oil from reaching the Ashtamudi and Vembanad lakes.
The operation was jointly carried out by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) and the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) off Agatti coast in Lakshadweep, sources told PTI.
Italian oil tanker Enrica Lexie, from which gunshots were fired killing two Indian fishermen off Alappuzha, has been brought to Kochi early on Friday and police and coast guard personnel are questioning the crew.
Saturday's drone attack on MV Chem Pluto came amid increasing concerns over various commercial vessels being targeted reportedly by Iran-backed Houthi militants in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden amid the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The police have already registered a case and launched an investigation into the matter by constituting a special squad.
Out of 67 fishermen, 49 are from Tamil Nadu, 13 from Kerala, four from Assam and one from Andhra Pradesh, they said.
A diving team of the Indian Navy started rescue operations on Monday and one Coast Guard ship is providing assistance, an official spokesman said.
'The navy and coast guard have not even come one nautical mile near the islands in distress.'
Gale-force winds, heavy rainfall and high tidal waves swept the coastal belts of Maharashtra and Goa as Cyclone Tauktae hurtled northwards towards Gujarat.
The Tanur police said a case was registered on Sunday itself against the owner of the boat, which reportedly did not have a licence to function.
Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal made the request during a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran on Monday.
Defence exports have grown by 334 per cent in the last five years and India is now exporting to over 75 countries due to collaborative efforts, the government said on Sunday. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) said in a tweet: "The Indian Defence sector, the second largest armed force is at the cusp of revolution." "Defence exports grew by 334 per cent in the last five years; India now exporting to over 75 countries due to collaborative efforts," it said.
On the sixth anniversary of the Mumbai terror attacks, the government said the overall coastal and maritime security along the entire coast is 'much stronger than before' as several steps have been taken in this direction.
Sub Lieutenant Kumudini Tyagi and SLt Riti Singh would, in effect, be the first set of women airborne tacticians in India who would operate from the deck of warships.
The death toll on barge P305 that sank in the Arabian Sea four days ago rose to 49 on Thursday with the recovery of more bodies even as the Navy and the Coast Guard continued the search for the 26 personnel missing from the barge and 11 from anchor boat Varaprada, as hopes of finding more survivors of the Cyclone Tauktae fury receded.
Tropical storm 'Tauktae' (pronounced as Tau'Te) which had intensified into a very severe cyclonic storm, lies close to the Gujarat coast, the India Meteorological Department said. "The landfall process has started and will continue during next two hours," the IMD said.
Italy has mounted pressure on India to release its two marines, arrested for killing of two Indian fishermen off Kochi coast, claiming they were part of a Vessel Protection Detachment, which enjoys immunity under Italian laws.
The Indian Navy rescued an Iranian-flagged fishing vessel with 19 Pakistani crew members and a Sri Lankan trawler in two swift operations after armed pirates hijacked the boats in the Arabian Sea amid deteriorating security situation arising out of Iran-backed Houthi rebels targeting various cargo ships in the region.
Though many fishermen were brought ashore safely and admitted to hospitals, many are yet to recover from the shock of wrestling the lashing waves and seeing death face-to-face.
Rakesh Ballav, the captain of the barge, and others have been named in the FIR, a Mumbai Police spokesperson said.
The meeting also decided to strengthen the security measures to monitor the local fishing boats and crews, intensify checking of passenger boats and vessels reaching the islands and strengthen the ship berthing points and helibase by installing CCTV cameras.
It looks unlikely that a proper plan was in place or else the deaths could have been averted, reports Jyoti Mukul.
Chaired by Cabinet Secretary P K Sinha and attended by chiefs of the three services, secretaries of home, defence and others, the National Crisis Management Committee took stock of the prevailing situation in Kerala and directed all concerned to ensure continued assistance to the state government to meet the crisis, a home ministry spokesperson said.
Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday visited cyclone-hit Kerala and assured the state of all help while asserting that rescue operations would continue till every missing fishermen was brought back safely.
After four days of hectic negotiations, two Naval guards of an Italian merchant vessel were taken into custody in Kochi on Sunday and charged with murder in the killing of two Indian fishermen during a firing on their boat off the Kerala coast.
Seeking to put a lid on fresh controversy over movement of two army units near Delhi in 2012, Defence Minister A K Antony has said that the Indian military is a responsible force, which obeys the civilian government's decisions and in no circumstances there will be a military coup in the country.
With the focus now shifting from disaster mitigation of cyclone to flood relief, the defence ministry on Monday said it has pressed four helicopters into service to evacuate the marooned local population as well as to drop relief materials to Phailin hit areas.
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