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Adrift for 28 days, man to reunite with family on Thursday
Bhubaneswar: Adrift for 28 days in the high seas before he was washed ashore near the mouth of Chilika Lake on Friday last, Andaman man Amrit Kujur, 49, on Wednesday
Bhubaneswar: Adrift for 28 days in the high seas before he was washed ashore near the mouth of Chilika Lake on Friday last, Andaman man Amrit Kujur, 49, on Wednesday left Odisha to reunite with his anxious family.
Kujur, who is from Saheed Dweep of the Andamans, was washed ashore on a battered boat 28 days after he and his friend lost their course in the sea. Two successive storms battered his boat while the sea current propelled him 1,300 km away from his home. Kujur and his friend, Dibyaranjan, who died on the way, sold provisions and potable water to ships in the Andaman Sea.
Kujur flew to Kolkata on Wednesday en route to Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman Islands. He will arrive in Port Blair on Thursday. Kujur spent five days in a shelter home in Odisha’s Puri.
“...Kujur’s story is one of fight against all odds, bravery, and resilience.. we provided all possible assistance like food, shelter, medicines, clothes and other basic essentials so that he could gets back to his normal condition,” said Balwant Singh, Puri district magistrate. Singh said an officer from the district administration is accompanying Kujur up to Kolkata. The Puri administration paid for his return home.
On October 28, Kujur and Divyaranjan had stocked their motorised boat with groceries and potable worth Rs 5 lakh when they ran into a storm in the Andaman sea. The boat then drifted along till it ran out of fuel. The mast of the boat was badly damaged and its wireless communication also failed. Kujur and his friend threw their wares into the sea to reduce the weight on the boat.
The two tried hard to get help in reaching Baxck, their home, till a Burmese Navy ship came to their aid. The ship crew helped Kujur by giving him 260 litres of diesel and a compass for determining direction in the sea.
But the two again ran out of luck as they encountered another storm in the Bay of Bengal and they were again adrift in the sea till the fuel got exhausted. With no food and drinking water, Kujur’s friend, Divyaranjan, died a few days later but Kujur survived by drinking rainwater that he had soaked up in his towel. Kujur threw the corpse of his friend into sea and had lost all hopes of surviving when he was washed ashore near Chilika Lake last week.
After he was washed ashore near mouth of Chilika lake, Kujur said he had lost all hope of returning home alive. “It is God’s grace that I managed to remain alive. Everyone in Odisha including the villagers, police and officials treated me well. I am really happy and grateful for the help I got from people of Odisha,” he said before leaving for his home.
