Lankan fishermen fear Katchatheevu might be leased out to India

Katchatheevu, a tiny uninhabited island in the Palk Straits that was ceded to Sri Lanka by India in 1974, is back in focus.

A fishermen association in Mannar in northern Sri Lanka has dropped a bombshell by accusing the Lankan government of mulling handing over Katchatheevu to India on a “99-year-lease”. This decision, he feared, could be in return for the economic package that New Delhi has been extending to Colombo.

N M Alam, Secretary of Mannar District Fishermen’s Association, told the media on Thursday that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe should ensure that Katchatheevu stays with Sri Lanka and not “gifted away” to India in the name of lease.

He told Deccan Herald over the phone on Friday: “Katchatheevu belongs to the fishermen of northern Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan Government, under no circumstances, should give it on lease to India. Such a move will make our lives miserable. The Rajapaksas might lease out the island in return for India’s aid package. But they are not bothered about our livelihood.”

Alam’s doubts come amidst intense speculation in Tamil Nadu that the long-standing fishermen issue was high on the agenda of state BJP chief K Annamalai’s recent visit to Sri Lanka.

Apart from a diplomatic victory, if the lease materialises, Katchatheevu coming into the hands of India after almost five decades might give much-needed momentum to the BJP in Tamil Nadu, where it is still trying to get a foothold.

The matter is still sub judice with the Supreme Court hearing a bunch of petitions seeking retrieval of the tiny island. The Ministry of External Affairs wasn’t available for a comment on the developments.

Katchatheevu, which was once part of the territory held by the Rajah of Ramanathapuram and later brought under the Madras Presidency during British rule, has been a point of high contention in Palk Straits that divides Tamil Nadu and northern Sri Lanka.

Retrieving Katchatheevu from Sri Lanka has been a hot political topic in Tamil Nadu for decades together as fishermen from Rameswaram feel the tiny piece of island is rightfully theirs.

Though the island was “gifted” by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to her Sri Lankan counterpart Sirimavo Bandaranaike in 1974, fishermen from Rameswaram were allowed access to the territory to dry their nets. However, as the civil war raged in Sri Lanka, the island’s navy began restricting Indian fishermen who are now allowed to step onto the island only for the annual St. Anthony Church festival, that too only with diplomatic intervention.

Access to Katchatheevu, they feel, will resolve half of the problems faced by fishermen from both countries – incidents of fishermen being attacked or arrested by Sri Lankan Navy for entering into their territorial waters is a common

However, Alam felt any such move to lease Katchatheevu will only compound the problems of the Lankan fishermen. “Indian boats and trawlers come deep into our territory and take away our fish, even while Katchatheevu is still part of Sri Lanka. We can’t even imagine what would happen to fishermen from the north if India took ownership of Katchatheevu,” he said.

Bottom trawling, considered an ecologically drastic practice, is banned in Sri Lanka, whose fishermen from the north began venturing into the seas with their catamarans and fibre-glass boats after the three-decade-old civil war between the island’s army and the LTTE, came to an end in 2009.