Opinion As more Indian fishermen are detained by Sri Lanka, hard questions need to be asked in the Palk Strait

The Sri Lankan Navy has detained 68 Indian fishermen and seized 21 trawlers off the Tamil Nadu coast over the last few days. The Centre urgently needs to dial Colombo and secure their release. It also needs to sit with the Tamil Nadu government and work out a solution to the crisis brewing in the waters between the Tamil Nadu coast and Sri Lanka. Colombo has been accusing Indian fishermen of poaching in its waters. And its navy has been proactive in arresting Indian fishermen and capturing Indian vessels on charges of trespassing — last year, as many as 74 Indians were arrested and 11 boats seized. The Ministry of External Affairs negotiated their release but the problem is far from settled.

The crux of the matter seems to be overcapacity on the Indian side and the building scarcity in the Palk Strait due to overfishing. Colombo has been complaining that Indian trawlers violate the IMBL (international maritime boundary line) and fish in Lankan waters, depriving its own boats of catch. In October this year, Lankan fishermen, most of them Tamils, launched a flotilla from Mullaitivu to Point Pedro in the north to protest the alleged poaching. Sri Lanka’s fisheries minister, Douglas Devananda, reportedly raised the issue in a meeting with US diplomat Martin Kelly recently. New Delhi and Colombo had instituted a Joint Working Group (JWG) to address issues related to fishing in 2016, following a 2+2 initiative. Ever since the civil war in Sri Lanka ended in 2009, the Palk Strait has been especially roiled with the Lankan navy frequently confronting Indian fishermen, forcing hundreds to spend jail time in Colombo. The fact is that there are too many fishing boats trawling the Strait. When Colombo banned fishing after civil war broke out in the Jaffna peninsula in the 1980s, Indian fishermen found greater access to catch in the Lankan waters. As a result, in three decades, the number of Indian vessels more than trebled. With Lanka lifting the ban after 2009 and its boats and crews demanding their share of the sea, the catch has dwindled. Desperate fishermen now risk arrest and even death to cross the IMBL.

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Clearly, the Palk Strait can’t feed so many trawlers. The government must work out an economic package to buy out excess capacity so that the confrontation in the seas ends and fishing can be a sustainable vocation in the Tamil Nadu coast.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on December 23, 2021 under the title ‘In choppy waters’.