Northern fisherfolk demand a lasting solution
Indian fishing trawlers are illegally poaching in Sri Lanka’s Northern seas, violating laws that prohibit bottom trawling and illegal fishing by foreign vessels, according to Northern Province fisher leaders.
During a media conference in Colombo, they accused Sri Lankan authorities of releasing arrested Indian fishermen without adhering to the law, as if there were no consequences for poaching.
Leader of a Jaffna-based fishermen’s federation, A. Annarasa, claims their livelihoods are being destroyed while their attackers are arrested and released within days.
His remarks come days after the Sri Lankan government released 22 fishermen from Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu, whom the Sri Lankan Navy detained on charges of trespassing on Nov. 18.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is said to have intervened to expedite the release of the arrested Tamil Nadu fishermen.
“We read in the media that the Indian Minister requested, and our President [Ranil Wickremesinghe] released them. Then why do we need laws or regulations? This only shows that neither government cares about us,” Mr. Annarasa said, voicing frustration over an enduring problem.
For well over a decade now, fishing communities from Sri Lanka’s war-affected region have been relentlessly highlighting the destructive impact of Indian trawlers engaging in illegal fishing along their coastline.
The fishing vessels, originating in Tamil Nadu, use the bottom-trawling method, which indiscriminately scoops out marine organisms, resulting in a drastic fall in fish production over time.
Northern Sri Lankan fisherfolk demand a lasting solution to preserve marine biodiversity in the Palk Strait through talks and protests.
Although India and Sri Lanka in 2016 agreed to “expedite the transition towards ending the practice of bottom trawling at the earliest”, there has been no respite in these six years.
Furthermore, Sri Lanka has banned bottom trawling since 2017 and imposed hefty fines in 2018 on foreign vessels, but this has not proven to be a successful deterrent.
This year alone, a total of 164 Indian fishermen were arrested in Sri Lanka’s northern seas on charges of poaching.
A total of 115 have been repatriated already, and more releases are likely this week, according to official sources. (The Hindu)