Tuesday, 21st October 2014
By Chrishanthi Christopher
Despite the change in the political scenario and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram out of Tamil Nadu politics, the protracted problem of poaching in the Palk Strait, between Sri Lanka and India, continues.Last month, Jayaram, who was embroiled in a disproportionate asset case, was imprisoned by a Bangalore Special Session Court. With Jayalalithaa no more the Chief Minister, it was expected that the new administration will be more flexible on the issue. Sri Lanka politicos maintained that due to the cordial relationship with the Central Government it would be easier to solve the fishing problem.
However, these hopes were shattered when O. Panneerselvam, the new Chief Minister who assumed office, soon prioritized the fishermen's issue and wrote to Prime Minister Narendera Modi requesting him to solve the fishermen's problem that is affecting the Tamil Nadu State's fishermen's livelihood. In his letter, Panneerselvam called on Modi to abrogate the 1974 and 1976 agreements between India and Sri Lanka ceding Kachchativu to Sri Lanka, claiming that the waters around Kachchativu had been the traditional and historical fishing grounds of Indian fishermen.
Presently, Sri Lanka has in its custody 77 Indian fishing boats and Minister Rajitha Senaratne said that he has no intention of releasing the boats unless a permanent solution was arrived at to solve the poaching by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan territorial waters. He said that with the boats confiscated there are now fewer boats straying into the Sri Lankan waters. "The present state of affairs is conducive to Sri Lanka and we will not release the boats," he said.
Sri Lanka and India have been talking since the beginning of this year regarding this issue. A delegation of representatives of Northern fishermen and officials of the Fisheries Department and External Affairs Ministry travelled to India in January 2014 for discussions but failed to reach consensus.
The talks ended with the decision to have an impasse for one month from 10 February to 10 March during which time fishermen of both countries were not allowed to cross each other's maritime boundary lines. However, the Tamil Nadu fishermen kept ignoring the agreement and kept drifting into the northern waters of Sri Lanka. The next round of talks which were scheduled to be held on 13 March in Colombo was postponed many times due to the intransigent stance of Jeyaram who insisted upon the release of 177 fishermen and 44 boats in the island's jail, as a pre-condition for talks. Sri Lanka, not willing to abide, claimed that the Indian fishermen were repeatedly violating rules and regulations governing fishing in the Indian Ocean and are crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).
Eventually, when the talks were held in Colombo in May 2014, the Tamil Nadu fishermen asked for concessions from Sri Lanka to be allowed to cross the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and continue with their deep sea trawling activities in the Palk Strait, promising that will eventually find alternative means of livelihood.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries was proposed by the Indian Government in an attempt to resolve the fishing dispute. In the MOU it was stated that Sri Lanka allow Indian fishermen to enter Sri Lankan waters for three days a week for a period of two years until such time that the Indian waters are repopulated. During this time it was also undertaken that the Indian fishermen will be switching from bottom trawling to ordinary fishing methods.
With Sri Lanka disagreeing to sign the MOU, the talks ended in failure and even today the fishermen from both sides of the Palk Strait continue to trespass in each other's waters.
In this game, Sri Lanka stands to lose. The Indian fishermen are continuing to use huge trawlers to do deep sea fishing in its waters. However, as a concession, Sri Lanka in recent times started releasing the arrested fishermen within a week after being produced before Courts. However their boats are being retained.
The first group of 98 fishermen was released on the orders of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, immediately before he left for New Delhi to participate in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing in ceremony in May 2014. In another good will gesture 98 fishermen were released on 15 August to mark India's Independence Day. Following this, fishermen caught are being released as and when they are arrested.
Meanwhile, the Indian fishermen in Tamil Nadu disappointed with the talks are agitating and pushing the State Government to secure the release of their boats. They claim that their livelihood is being snatched and that the confiscated boats are not maintained properly by the Sri Lankan Government. They say that their boats are docked haphazardly by the Sri Lankan Navy and are prone to damage by strong winds and waves constantly beating the docks.
Agitating fishermen in July went on an indefinite strike demanding that their boats be released. After days of striking and with no result from the State Government, they threatened to sail to Sri Lanka, surrendering themselves to the Sri Lanka Navy along with the boats.
More than 700 boats from Rameswaram and 600 from Jagathapattinam and Kottaipattinam in Pudukottai Districts were anchored at the jetties demanding that the Tamil Nadu government take action to free their boats from Sri Lanka. The strike affected 20,000 families, crippling their fishing industry gravely.
A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP), Dr. Subramanian Swamy who was in Sri Lanka on several occasions tried to negotiate a deal with Sri Lanka to agree to allow the Tamil Nadu fishermen fish in the Delft areas of Kachchaitivu. He also claimed that the Indian seas have gotten depopulated of fish because of the deep sea trawling method adopted by the Indian fishermen and that Sri Lanka should allow the fishermen to use the seas near Kachchaitivu. He is quoted to have said that the fish resources have been depleted in the Indian side of the Gulf of Mannar and good export value fish and shrimp are on the Sri Lankan side. The suggestion has brought strong opposition from the northern fishermen who claim that they and their small boats are sidelined by the huge Indian boats that use deep sea trawling, which is banned in Sri Lanka. They allege that Tamil Nadu fishermen are using illegal fishing methods and destroying their livelihoods.
Sri Lanka argues that it could not possibly allow deep sea trawling in its seas when it is banned in Sri Lanka. The Secretary to the Fisheries Minister,
Dr. D.M.R.B. Dissanayke said that the question of allowing them to fish in Sri Lankan waters does not arise as the very conflict between the two countries is about bottom trawling and if they are allowed to fish in Sri Lankan territorial waters, the fishermen will exhaust the fish resources of Sri Lankan waters as well.
Another argument put forward by the Indians is that the Indian fishermen traditionally held fishing rights across the Palk Strait. The Indian fishermen during Sri Lanka's 30 year long civil war had the zone all to themselves and when the war ended in 2009 they are being restricted by the Sri Lanka Navy who patrol the areas and arrest Indian fishermen who stray into our waters. The Indian fishermen feel that they are being penalized for what they believe is their right to fish in the waters around Kachchaitivu, which they believe belongs to them.
Kachchaitivu, although ceded to Sri Lanka, remains uninhabited and has been used by Indian fishermen to camp and rest during their fishing expeditions.
Think tanks argue how Tamil Nadu politicians, who claim to care for Sri Lankan Tamils, could allow their fishermen to fish in Sri Lanka's northern waters, thus depriving the northern fishermen of their livelihood. They state that Tamil Nadu has the biggest responsibility to help these fishermen resettle in their traditional homelands and resume fishing in their waters.
It is maintained that Tamil Nadu, instead of asking the Central Government to mediate to release its fishermen, should impose strict rules and regulations and actively discourage them from crossing the IMBL and drifting into Sri Lankan territorial waters. Deep sea trawling has exhausted the fish resources in the Indian territorial waters and there is a need for India to train its fishermen in proper deep sea fishing methods. The Indians are believed to have more than 5,000 trawlers and use sophisticated hi-tech fishing gear.
The Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka account for around 60% of the coastline of Sri Lanka and their seas are rich in fish resources. The constraint on fishing activities in the northern and eastern seas during the war in the past decades has had a major impact on the country's GDP. The export of tuna to the European Union (EU) has amounted to a massive US$ 100 million. With Russia and China showing interest in importing our fish, the fishing industry has huge potential in the future for bringing in much wanted foreign exchange into the country.
From: Ceylon Today. http://www.ceylontoday.lk/51-75952-news-detail-if-tamil-nadu-can-let-us-also-care-for-northern-fishermen.html
