The Fishermen Who Saved Kerala

The water had risen in the night. By morning it was at the windows. By afternoon it was at the roof.

All across central Kerala, families climbed onto their terraces and rooftops and waited. They waved cloths and torches at the helicopters overhead. They shouted to anyone who passed. Many of them had never seen floodwater like this in their lives.

Then, through the brown water, came a boat. And then another. They were not navy boats. They were fishing boats, and the men in them had come a long way.

The great flood

In August 2018, the monsoon rains over Kerala were far heavier than usual. Day after day it poured. Rivers burst their banks. Hillsides gave way in landslides. Dams across the state filled up so fast that their gates had to be opened, and the water rushed down into the towns and villages below.

It was the worst flooding Kerala had known since 1924. Around five hundred people lost their lives. More than a million people had to leave their homes and shelter in relief camps.

Rescuers from the army, navy, air force and disaster response teams worked day and night. But the flood covered huge areas, and thousands of people were still stranded.

The boats on lorries

Along Kerala's coast, in fishing villages near Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and other towns, fishermen were watching the news.

They knew water. They had spent their whole lives in boats, on the open sea, in rough weather. They did not wait to be asked twice. Almost as soon as the call for help went out, they began to haul their boats out of the water and onto lorries.

Long lines of trucks, each carrying a fishing boat, set off inland toward the flooded districts: to Chengannur and Pandanad, to Aranmula, to Aluva and Chalakudy, and many other places. Some fishermen brought their own fuel. Many brought their sons and brothers along.

Into the flood

The flood was not like the sea. The water raced through streets and fields in strong currents. Under the surface lay walls, fences, cars and electric wires. Boats struck hidden obstacles and were damaged. The fishermen had to steer through people's gardens and along roads they did not know.

But they knew how to handle a boat in rough water, and how to keep their balance while lifting a person aboard. They went from house to house, calling out, pulling people down from roofs and out of upstairs windows. They carried old people and babies. They brought out the sick, the pregnant and the frightened. Then they went back for more.

They worked through the day and often into the night, with little rest and little food. Most of them did not know the area. People on rooftops guided them by shouting directions.

The man who knelt

One moment came to stand for all of them.

A young fisherman named Jaisal K.P., from Tanur in the Malappuram district, was helping to rescue people in the flood. Some women were struggling to climb from the water up into a rescue boat. So Jaisal knelt down in the water, bent forward, and let them step on his back to climb in.

Someone filmed it on a phone. The video was shared across India, and people everywhere were moved by it.

Kerala's own army

By the time the waters went down, the fishermen were believed to have rescued around sixty-five thousand people, according to the state government.

Kerala's Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, praised them in public and called them Kerala's own army. The state honoured them at a special ceremony. The government offered money for each boat, to cover fuel and repairs. Many fishermen said they had not gone for money, and some refused to take it.

The fishing communities of Kerala's coast are among the poorest in the state. Their homes are often small, and their work is hard and risky. But in those days of August 2018, when the whole state was in trouble, they were the ones who went out first, into the water they knew better than anyone.

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The Kerala Post Disaster Needs Assessment, published in 2018 by the Government of Kerala with the United Nations and the World Bank, describes the scale of the floods. Indian newspapers, including The Hindu and The Indian Express, carried many reports and interviews with the fishermen rescuers.