The recent release of five Indian fishermen, sentenced to death in Sri Lanka on charges of drug trafficking, came as a huge diplomatic victory for India, but the issue of alleged poaching by Indian fishermen continues to be a big challenge.
Despite a notion of ‘Tamil brotherhood’ binding them, the fishermen on either side of the Palk Strait are unable to come to a consensus. Still recovering from the impact of a brutal ethnic conflict, the Tamil-speaking fishermen across Sri Lanka’s Northern Province are among the most vulnerable. Returning to the seas after the three decade-long war, they find that aggressive bottom-trawling from the Indian side is wiping out marine resources and damaging their nets.
Several rounds of talks have been held between fishermen from both countries and at an official level, but the problem persists. At the heart of the Palk Bay conflict is an issue pertaining to livelihoods — of Northern Sri Lankan fishermen on the one side, and of the Tamil Nadu fishermen on the other.
On the Indian side, the fishermen from Rameswaram never thought that trawling, which was introduced as part of a mechanisation process four decades ago, would become a bone of contention in the Palk Bay. “The fishermen have been using the trawlers for more than 30 years. They should be given time to phase out the trawlers,” says U. Arulanandham, President of the Alliance for Release of Innocent Fishermen (ARIF) who took part in two rounds of talks.
While political parties in Tamil Nadu keep the debate over Katchatheevu — a tiny island between the countries — alive, the possibility of India retrieving the island is highly unlikely in the near future, considering that a 1974 agreement between the countries officially acknowledges it as being in the Sri Lankan territory. The governments now go by the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) — that both countries agreed upon in 1976 — earmarking territorial waters, which the Indian fishermen are accused of often crossing.
Given that New Delhi seldom took a public position on the erring Tamil Nadu fishermen, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s recent message, urging fishermen not to cross the IMBL, was significant. This year alone, as many as 744 Indian fishermen were caught for alleged poaching in Sri Lanka, and 156 trawlers were seized.
Mohamed Alam, Mannar District Fishermen’s Cooperative Society Union : We consider the fishermen from Tamil Nadu our brothers, but why don’t they see our plight? Why are Tamil Nadu fishermen — or for that matter the media in Tamil Nadu —reluctant to even acknowledge that they cross the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL)? They have been poaching for years together now. During the war, we were not allowed to go to the seas but now, so many families depend on the sea for their livelihood. Fisherfolk are struggling to make ends meet and many are in heavy debt.
Though the Sri Lankan Navy arrests Indian fishermen for poaching and seizes their trawlers every now and then, it does not seem to deter them. They return to our coasts every other day. Is it because they think, no matter what, their leaders and government will bail them out? We have been pleading with them for a long time because we don’t want to antagonise our own folk. How long can we be patient?
K. Rajachandran, President, Jaffna District Fisheries Federation : Our fishermen are scared to get into the sea fearing the trawlers. Many have lost their nets when the sharp blades under the trawlers tear through them. You can see the Indian trawlers very close to our shore. They come every other day and we go fishing only three days a week. Life is really hard for us because there has been no improvement in the situation. Fishermen are borrowing money to repair their nets but there is no guarantee that they can fish peacefully.
We find that some of the species of fish found in this part of the sea are not seen anymore. The trawlers just scoop out all marine resources from the ocean bed, destroying some small species over a period of time.
The issue is highly politicised and the two governments are talking; but not much has changed in our lives. Many of our fisherfolk lost their family members and homes during the war. It is only now that they are slowly rebuilding their lives, but the Indian trawlers have made life an everyday battle for us.
A. Irudhayaraj: Fishing in the Palk Bay has become a nightmare ever since the Sea Tigers, the naval wing of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), were defeated in 2009. Now the Sri Lankan Navy stands guard at the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL). We have to cross the IMBL for a good catch. The limited radius in Indian waters is too small an area for about 1,000 mechanised boats from Rameswaram, Pamban and Pudukottai areas.
We wait till it gets dark and sneak in. We sail in groups and employ all sorts of ruses to avoid arrest and attacks by the Sri Lankan Navy. If we venture into the sea from Rameswaram fishing jetty around 7.00 a.m. we hang around the Indian waters till late in the evening before making the ‘adventures’.
There are at least 500 mechanised boats in the Lankan waters at any given time and the fittest survive. It’s life and death every day but we have no option. The fishermen do not take much risk these days, as the Sri Lankan government has started impounding the boats. When chased, the fishermen cut the nets to sail fast and escape. With the help of GPS, they retrieve the nets later or abandon them, incurring huge loss. Sometimes they go up to the Lankan shore but make sure they do not damage the nets spread by the Lankan counterparts.
Venturing into the Palk Bay for fishing is always a gamble. Almost all the mechanised boats are owned by the fishermen. A boat owner spends Rs. 25,000 on diesel, Rs. 2,000 on ice, salt and ration items for the crew and seven per cent of the value of the catch as salary for the driver and four per cent each for five ‘luskars’. If a boat gets a catch for around Rs. 50,000 in one trip, he will be left with around Rs. 8,000 after all this expenditure. On an average, only 100 boats return with a catch worth Rs 50,000; some manage to break even and a few others end up burning their fingers. Some of the fishermen even return empty-handed either due to technical snags in their vessels or fearing arrest by the Sri Lankan Navy.
In the absence of cold storage facilities and an auction centre, the fishermen have to dispose off the catch within hours of returning to the shore. Ironically, they cannot determine the price of the catch. Three export companies fix the price based on supply and demand. The fishermen seldom get good price.
P. Sesu Raja: The Rameswaram fishing jetty is overcrowded and the government has to decongest the jetty before initiating alternative livelihood means to prevent the fishermen from crossing the IMBL. A least 300 boat owners are willing to sell their boats and take up alternative livelihood but there are no takers for the boats. The government has to step in and announce a buy-back policy as a first step.
The government can also wean away a sizeable number of fishermen if a fishing harbour is constructed at Mookaiyur, a fishing hamlet along the Gulf of Mannar near Kadaladi.
A channel near Danushkodi, the eastern end of Rameswaram, was also mooted to divert a section of the fishermen to go down south for fishing. The government could consider the proposition, as there are not many takers for tuna long liners and deep sea fishing. Tuna long liners are very expensive with each boat costing more than Rs. 60 lakhs, so the Centre and State governments should hike the subsidy to 100 per cent to woo the fishermen.
The Centre should also consider giving priority to educated children of fishermen for jobs in the Coast Guard and Navy. Though we educate our children, they come back to fishing due to lack of opportunities.
