For survival skills: On the Mumbai boat tragedy and marine safety   Politics & News

The Mumbai boat tragedy is a wake-up call for improving marine safety. A busy port, a naval dockyard, the Mazagon dockyard, fishing boats, and a popular tourist destination — the Gateway of India, a launching pad for tourist boat rides — are all located in the same area. Merchant ships and naval vessels jostle for space with tourist and fishing boats, creating a congested and potentially hazardous environment. Sea trials of a new craft involve testing it under the most stringent operating conditions to determine whether machinery and hull are safe and seaworthy. Typically, sea trials for merchant ships are conducted in open waters. However, the naval speed boat that collided with Neelkamal is typically housed inside a naval ship and launched only for operations. This means it must be tested for maximum speed and manoeuvrability in shallow waters, possibly ruling out open-sea testing. During sea trials, machinery and controls are often subjected to strenuous conditions, increasing the likelihood of failure. On Wednesday, such a failure likely occurred, leading to the collision. Neelkamal is an old-fashioned V-shaped wooden boat prone to capsizing if it takes on water, though it will not sink. When the accident occurred, pilot boats from the port rescued around 100 passengers, most of whom were wearing life jackets, which are a proven defence against drowning. Unfortunately, those who could not hold on to the capsized boat or were not wearing life jackets did not survive.

An inquiry will determine whether the boat was carrying more passengers than its capacity and if there were enough readily accessible life jackets. It is necessary to establish guidelines for life jackets that can be donned quickly and easily, even by panic-stricken individuals, without being prohibitively expensive. Tragedies such as the 2009 Thekkady boat disaster have raised significant awareness in Kerala about the importance of life jackets. However, this incident serves as a broader reminder that sea or water transport is fundamentally different from road and rail travel. The sea — and even deep freshwater bodies — remains an inhospitable domain for humans. Without assistance, drowning or hypothermia is likely. In Scandinavian countries, where the sea is an integral part of daily life, survival skills for the water are taught to everyone. It may be time for India to incorporate survival-at-sea training into schools and workplaces, alongside first aid and other life-saving measures, to foster greater awareness and preparedness.