In the two years up to the end of the Sri Lankan civil war in 2009, less than 400 Indian fishermen were arrested for breaching the maritime boundary line with India’s island neighbour.
In the four years since, more than 1200 fishermen have ended up in Lankan jails. That in a nutshell explains how sensitive the maritime boundary line between India and Sri Lanka has become.
The announcement by Sri Lankan minister for external affairs G L Peiris that Colombo will detain and prosecute Indian fishermen, who poach in Sri Lankan waters marks a qualitative change in the Rajapaksa government’s handling of the issue.
Since the fall of the LTTE and end of the ethnic war in 2009, the international maritime boundary in the Palk Bay has become more volatile with the island nation stepping up action against illegal fishing in its territorial waters. As on date, 120 Indian fishermen languish in Lankan prisons.
Until recently, when TN fishermen were arrested by the Lankan navy, chief ministers wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and New Delhi took up the matter with Colombo through the Indian high commission.
The fishermen were subsequently released and handed over to the Indian Coast Guard on the maritime boundary. But of late, they are being held in Lankan jails for longer periods in a bid to stop cross-border fishing, which has deprived Lanka of much of its marine wealth.
Fishing is a major vocation in the northern Sri Lankan province. Prior to 1983, about 38% of the catch in Sri Lanka came from the coast along the northern province.
The ethnic conflict which began in 1983 marked a turning point for the fishing industry in both countries. Until then the Palk Bay was never a barrier; there was free movement of people between the two countries, partly due to the fact that Lanka did not have a strong navy then.
The ground reality changed when the conflict started. V Suryanarayan, a retired professor of Madras University and an authority on Lankan affairs, said, “During the ethnic conflict starting from 1983, fishing in the Tamil dominated areas came to a standstill as it was banned by the Sri Lankan government. Many fishermen came to Tamil Nadu as refugees and they worked for Indian trawler owners. In fact, they used to direct Indian fishermen to areas on the Sri Lankan side of the Palk Bay where fish is in abundance”.
But as the Sri Lankan navy expanded, they stepped up action against Indian fishermen, sometimes suspecting them to be Tamil guerrillas. With the end of the ethnic conflict, Sri Lankan fishermen have resumed fishing. But they find poaching by Indian fishermen a major hindrance to their livelihood. “What is more, trawling is banned in Sri Lanka and the Indian trawlers, which go deep into Lankan waters, play havoc with the marine ecology,” said Suryanarayan. Lankan fishermen complain that if trawling continues, there would be no fish left on the Sri Lankan side as well after a few years.
General secretary of Mechanised Boat Fishermen Welfare Association N J Bose said, “Pursuit of banned fishing practices and use of high power fishing trawlers by Indian fishermen are the reasons for the detention”. U Arulanandam of Alliance for Release of Innocent Fishermen (ARIF) estimates that about 2,000 fishermen would have been detained and released by the Lankan authorities since 1996.
2013 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd.