Sri Lankan fishing vessels Danilla and Yamuna, which were apprehended by the Cost Guard on Friday for venturing into Indian territorial waters off Lakshadweep, were brought here on Monday.
The trawlers with their Sri Lankan crew — 11 of them — were handed over to the Harbour Police here for prosecution.
Indian Coast Guard Ship Veera was on patrol as part of Lakshadweep’s first ever costal security exercise, ‘Neptune,’ when it came across the foreign trawlers which were fishing off Minicoy in India’s Exclusive Economic Zone in violation of sections 3/10 and 7/14 of the Maritime Zones of India Act of 1981.
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The Fisheries Department would assess the catch recovered from the marauding trawlers on Tuesday. Danilla, the Coast Guard authorities said, had been at sea for close to 20 days and carried fish catch weighing about 2,500 kg. Fishing vessel Yamuna, however, had only left Mirissa in Sri Lanka on January 26.
Modelled on Exercise Triton, the massive coastal security exercise that was carried out a few months ago along the Kerala coast, ‘Neptune’ had participation from the Coast Guard, the Navy, Air Force, Union Territory Police and other stakeholders in the coastal security of Lakshadweep. “In a first, the Army also took part in a coastal security exercise with its amphibious 91 Infantry Brigade stationed at Pangode in Thiruvananthapuram chipping in the exercise.