Sri Lankan Navy arrests 33 Indian fishermen, seizes four boats

Chennai: In yet another incident in the Palk Strait, the Sri Lankan Navy has arrested as many as 33 fishermen from Pamban in Rameswaram for fishing in the country’s water after allegedly crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL).

The arrests, according to fishermen associations, took place in Neduntheevu (Deft Island) in Sri Lanka on Thursday evening when the fishermen in four boats were fishing. The fishermen had set out for fishing in four mechanised boats from Pamban on August 8 morning.

The incident comes just a week after an Indian fisherman from Rameswaram lost his life while trying to escape being arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy near the disputed island of Katchatheevu, which was ceded to the neighbouring country by India in 1974. While one more fisherman continued to be missing, the remaining two were released last week.

“The fishermen were taken to Puttalam in northern Sri Lanka and produced before a court. All four boats have been seized under a new law by the Sri Lankan government. The owners will never get their boat because they will be auctioned,” N Devadoss, President, Rameswaram Fishermen Association, told DH.

The incident came on a day a local court in Sri Lanka’s northern province released 13 fishermen from Tamil Nadu who were arrested earlier and were in custody. Fishermen associations expressed their “disappointment” with the Union Government over its failure to prevent the arrests of fishermen from Tamil Nadu.

“We fish only in our traditional waters. This is where we have been fishing for decades together. Seizing boats takes away the livelihood of people dependent on fishing. The Centre should ensure that a permanent solution is found for this issue,” Devadoss added.

The 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 boats seized by the Sri Lankan Navy are nationalised, snatching livelihood from Indian fishermen.

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, often landing in trouble as the island’s Navy personnel encircle them in mid-seas, especially when they cross Katchatheevu, an uninhabited island ceded by New Delhi to Colombo in 1974.

The fishermen’s Tamil counterparts in Sri Lanka’s northern region say the bottom trawlers used by Indian fishermen scrap the seabed, bringing ecological destruction.