On a misty cool morning, five men set out from Rameswaram on a boat to catch prawns near the Sethusamudram canal.
At 12:40 pm, they heard gunshots. “The Lankan authorities are here, they are shooting, all of you lie down,” shouted Sekar, the owner of the boat. The other four, all of them family, ducked. The Lankan Navy boat came closer and the crew asked the fishermen to raise their hands.
“I can’t,” screamed Sekar. “I can’t move my hand. Something is wrong,” he cried. Sekar was shot in the shoulder. Brought back to shore, he spent 31 days in hospital and underwent surgery before he was able to head back home.
Six years later, Sekar continues to venture out into the dangerous seas near Rameswaram. “Mannar [in Sri Lanka] is only 25 nautical miles from Rameswaram,” he says. “We don’t have a choice.
We don’t get fish here anymore. All the fish are on the Lankan side. Many of us continue to go despite the dangers. It is a matter of our livelihood,” he adds. Sekar’s sentiment is echoed by most fishermen along the southern coast of Tamil Nadu.
Around 10 lakh fishermen along the coastline depend on the seas for a living. Southwards of Nagapattinam, fishermen make a beeline for the Indian Ocean and towards Sri Lanka, where the catch is aplenty. Sri Lanka has banned bottom trawling in an effort at conservation of marine life meaning that fish continue to breed and catch is excellent in Lankan waters.
“Even if we cast our nets here for a whole day, we don’t get anything,” says a fisherman. “But go towards Lanka and all you need is one hour to come back with a full boat,” he says.
2014 Times Internet Limited.