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Indian fishermen back in large numbers in Lankan waters
View(s):Indian fishermen are back, poaching in Sri Lankan waters in large numbers after keeping away for months, this time emerging from the Mannar side in the North-West.
On the night of January 12 and early morning of the next day, the Navy spotted multiple clusters of Indian trawlers – an estimated 500 – in Sri Lankan waters, said Navy Spokesman Commander Isuru Sooriyabandara. The largest collection was between Delft and Iranativu, while another two were closer to Mannar Island. They were chased away.
Three boats and a total of 28 Indian fishermen were apprehended off Mannar and Delft, but not before a minor clash occured. Fishermen on board one of the trawlers violently resisted arrest and attempted to escape, the Navy claimed. This vessel allegedly collided with the naval craft and sank as a result.
Three fishermen were rescued but a fourth – Karuppaiah Munnasami, 55, from Ramanathapuram in India – drowned as he was trapped in the pilot room. His body was recovered by the Navy. A post-mortem concluded he had drowned.
The detained fishermen were remanded for two weeks after being produced before the Mallakam Magistrate’s courts. Speaking to local media after their arrests, the fishermen who had been on board the damaged vessel alleged that the Navy had sunk their trawler, then failed to search for the missing man immediately after the incident. Had this been done, he might have been saved, they claimed.
Despite the outcry, the Sri Lanka Navy has vowed it will continue to arrest anybody engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in territorial waters. They will safeguard local fishermen and marine resources amidst renewed poaching by Indian fishing vessels.
Meanwhile, experts who have studied the issue said the relevant authorities in Colombo are yet to realise that the issue of Indian trawlers in Sri Lankan waters was re-emerging. “It had stopped,” said Prof Oscar Amarasinghe, who is President of the Sri Lanka Forum for Small-Scale Fisheries. “The fishermen said so. My contacts also confirmed that it had stopped in the North. But why it is re-emerging is something we have to look into. There must be some reason why it is happening, and not in Jaffna, only in Mannar.”
Prof Amarasinghe studied illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing for five years, from 2010-15. Articles were written, policies were drafted and the Sri Lanka Government was repeatedly asked to intervene.
“Everybody thought the issue was settled,” he said. “Very stringent measures were taken. The Navy was vigilant. The new law, Fisheries (Regulation of Foreign Fishing Boats) Act, came into effect and the Indian trawlers were reluctant to cross over.”
The State Government was also working towards moving the fleet into deep seas. “They were training people, institutes were established,” Prof Amarasinghe said. “The Tamil Nadu Government was very serious. At a meeting that I attended in Colombo a few months ago on destructive fishing practices, a fisher leader from the North said the Indian issue was no longer there and that the problem was with Sri Lankan trawlers fishing in areas where there was small-scale fishing.”
But, suddenly, he started receiving calls from Mannar saying, “They are coming back again.” Prof Amarasinghe flagged this to the authorities in Colombo, including the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at a lecture he delivered in December on conflicts in the Palk Bay.