A team of Sri Lankan fisher leaders will leave for Chennai to participate in the talks with their counterparts across the Palk Strait.
Around 10 fisher leaders, accompanied by senior officials of the Sri Lankan government, will be part of the discussions scheduled for March 24 and 25, according to Fisheries Ministry sources here.
The last two rounds of talks held in Chennai in January 2014 and in Colombo in May 2014 ended in a deadlock as the fishermen could not reach a consensus. “Our fishermen are willing to engage, and we want to find a long-term solution to the issue,” Secretary to the Ministry of Fisheries Nimal Hettiarachchi told The Hindu on Saturday.
During the talks held in May 2014, Northern Sri Lankan fishermen asked Indian fishermen to immediately stop using bottom trawlers in Sri Lankan waters which, they said, destroyed their livelihoods and damaged the marine ecosystem. However, the Indian fishermen demanded at least three years to completely phase out trawling, which the Sri Lankan side did not agree to.
The fisheries conflict has proved a serious challenge to Indo-Sri Lanka relations over the last few years, with Sri Lankan fishermen of the Tamil-majority Northern Province repeatedly raising concern over the Indian trawlers allegedly poaching in the Sri Lankan waters.
More recently, after the Tamil National Alliance — the main party representing the island’s northern Tamils — started taking up the issue, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has decided to convene a national-level meeting on March 31 to discuss the issue.
Around 10 fisher leaders will take part in the discussions scheduled for March 24 and 25
