Devbrat Patnaik

Puri: Travelling from Port Blair to Neil Island in Bay of Bengal in a fishing boat, a man of Andaman and Nicobar Islands who lost direction due to a cyclonic storm, managed to survive without adequate food and water for nearly 21 days before being washed away to Odisha coast.

The survivor Amit Khujur was rescued today by the locals of Khirisahi village in Krushnaprasad block here after his boat hit Puri shores early morning.

Narrating his incredible story of survival, Amit said that he along with another native was returning home when suddenly they were caught in the severe weather in the middle of the sea. Though the boat wrestled with the strong winds, they couldn’t move ahead in the desired direction and lost their way.

“We kept on moving till we emptied our oil stocks and thereafter we sailed hoping to find a way but due to strong winds, the mast of our ship was badly damaged and our means of wireless connections also did not work. We were forced to dismount goods from the boat fearing capsize and with no other ways left, we floated on the boat. Despite desperately crying out to many cargo ships along the way, nobody noticed us but fortunately on the third day, we encountered a Burmese Navy ship. They helped us by giving 260 litres of diesel and a compass for ascertaining our direction in the sea. But after some days we ran out of fuel and it seemed that we would not be able to set our foot on land again, said Amit recounting his horrific experience of what seemed to be a never-ending expanse of sea.

“By then, even though I managed to keep going with scanty amount of saline water to keep me alive despite without any food, my other companion was dying of starvation for seven days and so I decided to leave him behind, Amit claims to have remained stranded in the sea for as many as 21 days,” he said.

Amit narrated that after days of unobstructive floating, his ship suddenly hit something last night and when he got up he witnessed that he had hit land.

scrollToTop