Coast Guard provides full protection to Indian fishermen during Katchatheevu visit

The opening ceremony of St Antony church was held at Katchatheevu island on Friday.

A total of 82 Indian pilgrims including three women embarked in three mechanised fishing boat and departed Rameshwaram fisheries jetty post screening by security agencies.

Indian Coast guard ship Rani Durgavati, a fast patrol vessel was deployed for providing security, search & rescue and medical coverage during the passage from Rameshwaram to IMBL near Katchatheevu and back.

The ship handed over the boats with Indian pilgrims to Sri Lankan Coast guard ships and received them back on completion of the event. All the fishing boats with pilgrims were escorted to Rameshwatam jetty safely. And the mission was successful without any untoward incident.

Meanwhile, in a first-of-its-kind on eastern coast of India, the coast guard eastern region, deployed all women officers crew in a fixed-wing aircraft dornier for undertaking maritime patrolling and to check illegal activities at seas, especially near international maritime boundary line.

According to a press note, Dy commandants Akshi, Sunita (pilots) and Priyanka Tyagi (observer) from 744 sqn (CG) coast guard air station Chennai have successfully completed maritime reconnaissance dornier sortie over high seas.

All lady officers have been continuously trained for real time operations which include pollution response, maritime reconnaissance, search and rescue, anti-piracy and anti-poaching missions.