In two separate incidents over the Republic Day weekend, the Sri Lankan Navy arrested at least 34 fishermen and seized three boats. Early on 9 February, 14 fishermen were arrested for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).
These incidents mark the latest flashpoint in the continuing battle for fishing rights in the narrow strip of water known as the Palk Strait that separates India and Sri Lanka. Fishermen from the Tamil Nadu coast and Puducherry often stray into Sri Lankan waters, inadvertently or by design. While on most occasions, detained fishermen are returned to India after weeks or months of diplomatic intervention, many have lost not only their boats but also their lives.
In the latest incident, two fishermen were injured in what the Sri Lankan statement calls “an accidental firing”, apparently provoked by the fishermen attempting to assault naval personnel and snatch a firearm. While New Delhi made the appropriate noises and summoned the Sri Lankan envoy to declare that the use of force was not acceptable, the fact is that the two countries have failed to resolve the issue for decades.
As many as 141 fishermen are currently believed to be in Sri Lankan prisons. Over 540 Indian fishermen were arrested in 2024, 240 in 2023, 268 in 2022 and 159 in 2021. Already, in the second month of 2025, official sources say over 60 Indian fishermen have been arrested.
According to the 1974 Indo–Lanka Maritime Agreement, the Indian government ceded Kachchatheevu Island to Sri Lanka. This was done without taking the fishermen into confidence. With this island — where they used to dry and clean their daily catch, repair their nets and mend their boats — becoming off-limits, they had to keep coming back to the Tamil Nadu coast before venturing out again.
This crisscrossing over the IMBL by both Tamil-speaking Sri Lankan fishermen from Jaffna and Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu met with no resistance until the end of the civil war in Sri Lanka, when complaints began mounting against ‘incessant poaching’ by Indian fishermen.
In 2016, the governments of both countries proposed the establishment of a Joint Working Group (JWG) and the creation of a hotline. Media reports indicate that the JWG, which was to meet once in three months and also bi-annually, has met only five times in nine years, the last time in 2022.
Not consulting the Tamil Nadu government during the negotiations with Sri Lanka was a bad move. Experts also blame the 1983 Tamil Nadu Marine Fishing Regulation for exacerbating tensions by allowing Indian mechanised vessels to fish beyond three nautical miles. Going anywhere between 5 and 12 nautical miles would mean crossing the international line.
A key issue is the use of ‘bottom trawling’ by Indian fishermen. Bottom trawling is a destructive fishing method that involves dragging weighted nets across the ocean floor, which sweeps up everything in its path including juvenile fish. Sri Lanka banned bottom trawling in 2017 and has provisions to impose hefty fines on foreign vessels engaging in the practice.
Heavy fines deter Indian fishermen from appearing in Sri Lankan courts to reclaim their confiscated trawlers. As many as 60 such trawlers are reportedly in Sri Lankan custody, bound for the shipbreaking yard, a colossal waste of investment by those who can ill-afford it.
A project to wean Indian fishermen away from bottom trawling and incentivise them to adopt deep-sea fishing was launched in 2017. By 2020, only 10 per cent of the targeted 2,000 trawlers had been replaced with deepsea fishing boats equipped with long lines and gill nets.
The fear of incurring additional costs while saddled with pre-existing boats and loans has been a major deterrent. Some fishermen also claim that subsidies up to 70 per cent are inadequate since the cost of deep-sea boats hovers around Rs 1.20 crore at the cheaper end of the spectrum. It doesn’t help that they also dread meagre earnings due to poorer catches in the first few years of transition.
India exported sea food worth over Rs 60,000 crore in 2023–24, with Tamil Nadu accounting for 12–14 per cent of the exports, primarily frozen shrimp. Neither the Centre nor the state government want to take any step which might jeopardise these takings.
Fishermen on both sides speak of a time when they shared cordial ties. “We would call each other machaan (brother-in-law) and maapilai (son-in-law). We would share our porridge, karuvaadu (dried fish) and beedis. They would give us cigarettes and biscuits,” said an Indian fisherman in a report by the Hindu. Sri Lankan fishermen recalled the time when they took overnight boats to catch the latest MGR film in Rameswaram before coming home to the day’s work the following morning.
The situation is in limbo: with Indian fishermen finding it difficult to honour their promise to phase out bottom trawling even as their Sri Lankan counterparts insist that they stop it completely as a goodwill gesture.
India and Sri Lanka are both signatories to the United Nations Convention Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). According to Article 19 of UNCLOS, vessels that engage in activities in foreign territorial seas are considered a threat to the ‘peace, good order, or security of the coastal state’. Additionally, Article 21 allows ‘coastal states to adopt laws and regulations’ to prevent any infringement on their fisheries laws and regulations.
The onus is on the government of India to resolve the problem. Sri Lanka can easily escalate the issue to international tribunals, which will undoubtedly hold India guilty of violating international law. The island nation has been hesitant only because it does not want to antagonise its domineering neighbour and jeopardise bilateral ties. This despite being under pressure from its own fishing community to find a solution urgently.
As the larger and economically stronger country, India needs to take the initiative. Tardiness and taking Sri Lanka for granted is neither fair nor wise. It has been suggested that the rights issue over Kachchatheevu Island can be resolved through the establishment of a land lease agreement. A potential model is the Tin Bigha settlement between India and Bangladesh.
While the 1974 India–Bangladesh boundary agreement granted India sovereignty over Tin Bigha — a strip of land on the West Bengal–Bangladesh border — a lease agreement was executed in June 1992 to allow Bangladeshis to utilise it for civilian purposes. Such a solution might provide a mutually beneficial outcome for both India and Sri Lanka.
Fishermen continue to live in penury even as commercial fishing companies and owners of mechanised trawlers and deep-sea boats rake in the profits. It is tragic that it is these poor fishermen who face the brunt of the battle over rich fishing grounds. Accused of being poachers, infiltrators and even spies, it is they who lose their boats, their livelihoods and even their lives.
Setting up maritime risk reduction centres, following up on the proposed hotlines for real-time exchange of information and extending legal aid to the fishermen are some of the provisions already provided for in international laws and conventions. What is really needed is the political will to implement them.