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Poaching crisis continues: Two Lankans escape death
View(s):With the Indo-Sri Lanka poaching crisis still in stormy waters, two Sri Lankan fishermen had a narrow escape when Indian trawlers tried to sink their boat after the Navy gave chase to the poachers.
The two fishermen, affiliated to the Ambal Fisheries Cooperative in Karainagar, had gone to sea as usual on Wednesday night. Around midnight at least 25 Indian trawlers surrounded their vessel when the navy was chasing the poachers.
Kathiramalai Loganathan, one of the fishermen, said 27 of his 30 fishing nets worth about Rs, 250,000 were destroyed by the Indian trawlers and the boat was dragged along with the nets for more than two kilometres.
“When I cried out, they didn’t listen. Since my boat was small, it was no match to the pulling power of their trawlers. Our boat was sinking, when the Navy intervened,” he said.
The fisherman said the Navy arrested four Indian fishermen and seized one of their vessels.
With the arrested four fishermen from Rameshwaram, the total number of Indian fishermen in Sri Lanka’s custody has risen to 51.
In a recent letter to Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi, Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram urged the Indian Premier’s personal intervention to release remanded fishermen and their vessels.
“The frequency of apprehensions and abductions of our fishermen is on the increase. These recurrent instances of attacks upon, and abductions of, our fishermen on the high seas in the Palk Bay should be stopped immediately,” she said.
The Chief Minister reiterated the state government’s stand that the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) with Sri Lanka “cannot be treated as a settled question”.
She said she had petitioned the Supreme Court questioning the validity of two agreements between India and Sri Lanka ceding Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in the 1970s.