Cyclone Murasu damages 143 fishing boats at Gundamala village in Prakasam district

Fishermen carry out repair works on boats damaged due to the strong gale-force winds and heavy rains triggered by the Cyclone Murasu amid mangrove forests at Gundamala coastal village in Prakasam district on Thursday.

Several fishing boats were damaged due to Cyclone Murasu in the coastal village of Gundamala in Kothapatnam mandal of Prakasam district. The officials of the Fisheries Department have not yet assessed the overall value of the damages.

The fiber boats belonging to the local fishermen were moored amid the mangrove forests, where seawater meets a small stretch of Buckingham Canal. They collided with each other and sustained damages due to the strong gale-force winds and heavy rains triggered by the cyclone.

An earthmover moves past fibre boats damaged due to strong winds and rough sea conditions caused by Cyclone Murasu at Gundamala coastal village in Prakasam district on Thursday.

Currently, the boats remain trapped among the mangrove vegetation. The heavy machinery used for the installation of electricity poles has been causing delay in the efforts of the fishermen to bring their boats back into the canal. There are approximately 450 fishermen in the village.

Meanwhile, the local fishermen informed that the earth-moving equipment operators were charging ₹10,000 to retrieve each large boat and ₹6,000 for each small boat. Of the 164 fishing boats in the village, 143 were damaged, including 15 large and 25 medium-sized boats.