There have been several recent incidents of Sri Lankan Navy personnel arresting Indian fishermen fishing in the Palk Strait and seizing their boats.
PTI file photo
As many as 14 fishermen from Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu have been apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy in the wee hours of Thursday for allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and fishing inside its water.
The fishermen, who ventured into the sea with seven persons in each boat, were to return to Rameswaram on Thursday after fishing but were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy and taken to Mannar. The fishing trawlers that they sailed in have been impounded by the Sri Lankan authorities.
Sri Lankan authorities said the trawlers, owned by Michael Raj and Nijo of Thangachimadam in Rameswaram, were fishing in Delft Island (Neduntheevu) in northern Sri Lanka. Neduntheevu is an island in northern Sri Lanka surrounded by shallow waters and beaches of coral chunks and sand.
The boats were part of 450 vessels that left Rameswaram fishing jetty on Tuesday evening. The arrest of Indian fishermen by the Sri Lanka has been on the rise since June this year when the ban on fishing ended. Various estimates say about 250 fishermen from Tamil Nadu have been arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy and 30 boats impounded since June this year.
Arrest of Indian fishermen from Pudukkottai, Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, and Ramanathapuram districts by the Sri Lankan Navy has been a recurring affair in the Palk Strait for the past few decades.
The fishermen cross the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and step into Sri Lankan waters as the fish catch is abundant on the other side. But their Tamil counterparts in Sri Lanka’s northern region say the bottom trawlers used by Indian fishermen scrap the seabed, bringing ecological destruction.
The Ministry of External Affairs maintains that the government attaches the highest priority to the safety, security and welfare of Indian fishermen and that the issue of fishermen has been taken up at the highest level.
“Sri Lankan Government has been requested to treat the fishermen issue as a purely humanitarian and livelihood concern, and it has been stressed that both sides should ensure that there is no use of force under any circumstances,” the ministry had said last year.