Desperate to find a negotiated settlement to the dispute over fishing in the Palk Bay, leaders of Rameswaram fishermen keep their fingers crossed as they fear that their Sri Lankan counterparts may harden their stand on bottom trawling.
The Lankan Tamil fishermen may even agree for sharing the Palk Bay with Indian fishermen for fishing but would certainly oppose bottom trawling, the leaders feel, but exude confidence that they can thrash out an agreement and buy time to phase out bottom trawling. “We cannot abandon bottom trawling all of a sudden and we need reasonable time,” fishermen leaders P. Sesu Raja and N.J. Bose said. The Central and State governments should help the fishermen to take to deep sea fishing or provide them an alternative livelihood, they say.
“It’s enough if they allow us trouble-free fishing for just two days a week,” Mr. Raja says. The fishermen are willing to give an undertaking that they will restrict themselves five nautical miles away from the Lankan shores after crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL), he says.
After making some progress in the first round of talks held in Chennai on January 27, the second round of talks held in Colombo on May 12 ended in a deadlock. The leaders look forward to the third round of talks. The Tamil Nadu government has written to the Centre that the talks could be held on or after March 15.
A solution to the vexatious issue is possible only if the fishermen from the two countries are allowed to discuss their problems threadbare without the interventions of officials, U. Arulanandam, president, Alliance for Release of Innocent Fishermen (ARIF), feels. A good number of fishermen should be weaned away to tuna long liner and deep sea multi-day drift net fishing with help from the governments, he says.
“The Indian fishermen can enjoy traditional rights in the Palk Bay only if they practise traditional fishing methods such as gillnetting,” he contends.
