For the doughty fishermen of Rameswaram island, the blue seas beckon no more. The recent ‘firing’ by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG) is a case of the fence eating the crops, they feel.
They will now set out to the sea, because fishing puts food on their table, but they will sail with more trepidation because they fear the onslaught of not just the Sri Lankan navy, but of forces they thought were their “own guardians”. The Coast Guard officials have tried to allay their apprehensions but a feeling of insecurity lingers in the minds of the fishermen.
Caught unawares
After a week-long strike following a stand-off with the fisheries department over payment of assistance, the fishermen had ventured into the Palk Bay for fishing on November 13, dreading the aggression of the Sri Lankan navy. The fishermen don’t hide the fact that they crossed the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) to fish in their “traditional waters” (Lankan waters) though the danger of getting arrested and attacked by the Lankan navy loomed large. On that day, at least 30 trawlers, making 15 pairs, forayed into the Lankan waters for ‘pair trawling’, the destructive fishing method banned both in India and the island nation, but were chased away by the alert Lankan navy.
As the fleet of four Lankan navy vessels stood guard at the IMBL, the fishermen beat a hasty retreat to the Indian waters to find ‘Rani Abbakka’, the Coast Guard’s patrol vessel from Chennai.
The fishermen thought the vessel was there to prevent them from crossing the IMBL but became terrified when ‘Rani Abbakka’ took a different ‘avatar’ and started chasing them right from 29th nautical mile, adjacent to the IMBL. The chasing continued till it targeted two trawlers to book them for pair trawling.
Scared, the fishermen on board the two trawlers tried to get away, as the boat owners would be fined ₹30,000 each if they were caught for pair trawling. They ignored the warning to stop and the chase became more intense and resulted in the ‘firing.’ After cornering one trawler, four personnel entered the boat and reportedly beat the fishermen with sticks and iron rods for not stopping despite repeated warnings.
The fishermen had earned their wrath for not learning or speaking in Hindi, they said. As the fishermen called their leaders onshore and informed them about the incident, word started spreading. The Coast Guard version started changing as time went on. They first denied firing had happened but later admitted they had fired warning shots from a very low calibre gun to stop the fishermen.
Fisheries officials rushed to the fishing jetty to provide medical assistance to the injured fishermen, but hardy folk that they were, the fishermen chose to continue fishing as the injuries were minor. The fishermen rued that there have been attacks by the Coast Guard in the past, though there was never any firing, but they would take it in their stride as they did not want to antagonise the security agency. The fishermen feared that if the ICG checked their identity cards, fishing permits, and registration certificates of boats, most of them would not be able to venture into the sea for fishing.
“If the ICG had admitted that they fired warning shots by mistake and clarified that they never intended to hurt the fishermen we would not have led the issue flare up,” said fishermen leader P. Sesu Raja. And when the Coast Guard officials at the Mandapam station called the leaders for conciliatory talks and expressed regret for the ‘firing’, the leaders extended their cooperation. The fishermen did not want to take a hostile stand against the Coast Guard, though some “external elements” tried to foment hatred between the two. The fishermen were well aware they need the assistance of Coast Guard.
Coast Guard personnel discriminate against the fisher people, talking in Hindi even if they knew Tamil, alleges Emirat, a fishermen leader. The ICG should be sympathetic to the cause of the fishermen, who eke out a living, risking their lives, says U. Arulanandham, president of the Alliance for the Release of Innocent Fishermen (ARIF). When Rameswaram and Pamban fishermen were released after months of incarceration in Lankan prisons, the ICG used to bring them to Rameswaram fishing jetty or the Mandapam station so fishermen would go home to waiting families quickly. But,of late, the Coast Guard is taking them all the way to Karaikal, he says.
After failing to assert their traditional fishing rights in the Palk Bay and with a permanent solution to their problems still in the future, the fishermen have been inclined to take up deep sea fishing. They were enthused by the scheme that Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently unveiled with attractive subsidies. “The fishermen are willing to switch over to deep sea fishing but should be given at least two years to phase out bottom trawling,” says fishermen leader N. J. Bose.
The way forward
In the absence of an alternative livelihood to fall back upon, fishermen are persuading their children to look for other careers, says Mr. Bose. The children of many of the fishermen were encouraged to pursue higher studies and the fisheries department organised a coaching programme for the wards of fishermen who wished to appear for civil service examinations.
The fisheries department heaved a sigh of relief as the firing issue was quickly resolved. The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute has chipped in with a training programme on open sea cage farming of select species of fish. But the fisher folk insist on more time to phase out bottom trawling.
Concerned over the reported incident of firing, the State government has asked Coast Guard to hold an “impartial probe” into the incident and submit a report.
