Recent dialogues between India and Sri Lanka succeeded in solving a few bilateral issues and reducing the trust deficit that existed due to long delays in some bilateral projects and New Delhi’s perceived fears about Colombo’s increasing cooperation with China. While most important issues about bilateral cooperation on port and energy projects were sorted out and decisions were taken to enhance defence cooperation, a few major differences on the devolution of power to the provinces in Sri Lanka and the vexed question of Indian fishermen crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) for illegal fishing in Sri Lankan waters evaded solutions. However, during last week, there were two developments that could lead to a solution on encroachment of Sri Lankan waters by Tamil Nadu fishermen. Last Sunday, Tamil fishermen set out on boats from the coast of Mullaitivu district to Point Pedro in Jaffna in the North, demanding that Sri Lankan authorities implement laws banning the destructive bottom trawling method of fishing. For the first time since the fishermen’s issue erupted, local Tamil politicians joined the protesting fishermen in solidarity. They include Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MPs M. A. Sumanthiran, S. Shritharan and Shanakiyan Rasamanickam, and former MP Shanthi Sriskantharajah, who hitherto kept away from any protest against India or Indian fishermen indulging in illegal fishing in Northern waters.
Fishing in Lankan waters
The Tamil Nadu Police have issued an alert instructing fishermen not to cross the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) for fishing in Sri Lankan waters. The police warned that there is a danger of attacks on fishermen crossing the maritime border. Law-enforcing agencies along the coastal districts have been advised to sensitise the fishing community to the risks. On Monday, a Navy vessel collided with an Indian fishing boat and a fisherman went missing, while two others were rescued by the Navy. The incident occurred near Neduntheevu. “Sri Lanka Navy (SLN) managed to rescue two fishermen aboard a sunken Indian fishing boat poaching in Sri Lankan waters across the IMBL northwest of the Kovilan Lighthouse in the evening of October 18,” a Navy statement said. Earlier, on October 13 the Sri Lankan Navy arrested 23 Indian fishermen and seized two fishing vessels on charges of trespassing, resuming action months after limiting arrests of foreign fishermen, fearing COVID-19. The fishermen issue remains an irritant while there is progress in other areas after the high-level visits by Indian Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Army Commander General M. M. Naravane during which the talks had helped bridge the trust deficit and prepare the ground for re-energising relations. Sri Lankan High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda said India and Sri Lanka are improving cooperation in areas ranging from trade to defence and energy.
Bottom trawling fishing
Sri Lankan fishermen have been accusing Indian fishermen of illegal fishing in Sri Lankan waters as well as using illegal nylon nets for bottom trawling and destroying the rich fish bed. Series of talks between Indian and Sri Lanka and Governmental mechanisms have not succeeded in finding a solution. Although India acknowledged the charges of encroachment and bottom trawling, the Indian Government was not able to prevent its fishermen from crossing the IMBL. The long term plans to introduce new methods of fishing in order to prevent the illegal use of nylon nets and bottom trawling has not been successful, though New Delhi sanctioned funds to Tamil Nadu for the training programme. Protesting Sri Lankan Tamil fishermen urged Fisheries Minister and Jaffna MP Douglas Devananda to use Sri Lankan laws to initiate action on those engaged in illegal fishing. MP Sumanthiran said the TNA MPs joined the protest to demand that Jaffna fishermen’s livelihoods are protected, and to demand that Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda initiate appropriate legal action against fishermen using the bottom trawling. After the end of the conflict in 2009, Northern Sri Lankan fishermen resumed their fishing activities and they found that a large number of Indian vessels have been fishing in their waters illegally. They found their livelihoods were severely affected by the Indian trawlers ravaging the fish-rich ocean bed. When there were increasing protests by Northern fishermen about illegal fishing in Sri Lankan waters and bottom trawling by Tamil Nadu fishermen, TNA MP Sumanthiran submitted a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament in 2015 calling for ban of bottom trawling. After two years, Sri Lanka banned bottom trawling and imposed heavy fines to deter illegal fishing, which has been a recurring concern in the Palk Strait.
Illegal fishing dropped for a while giving temporary relief to thousands of Northern Sri Lankan fishermen whose post-war livelihoods were severely affected by the Indian trawlers ravaging their coastline. However, within two years, the trawlers from India came back in large numbers and resumed their illegal fishing and bottom trawling. When the Northern fishermen complained to TNA MPs, they merely gave a patient hearing, but refrained from raising the issue with Central Government in New Delhi or with the Tamil Nadu State Government as they did not want to lose their close affinity with the Indian political authorities. However, the TNA could not remain indifferent when the Tamil public criticism for ignoring its voters’ economic concerns mounted. Annalingam Annarasa from the Federation of Jaffna District Fishermen’s Cooperative Society Unions told the Indian media that, “As an Alliance they don’t show a shared understanding or clarity on our problem and how we ought to respond to it collectively and responsibly. Tamil politicians should not use our problem to settle scores between themselves. That will only dilute our struggle.” Last week, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in securing the release of 23 Tamil Nadu fishermen who were arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy for illegal fishing on Sri Lankan side of the IMBL. In a letter written to Modi, a copy of which was released by the State Government, Stalin expressed that such incidents have been repeated in the past, and urged him to arrive at a permanent solution against the attack on Indian fishermen. “The continued attacks on innocent fishermen of Tamil Nadu by the Sri Lankan Navy are a matter of grave concern,” Stalin said in his letter. Impartial analysts, however, believe that Tamil Nadu fishermen entering Sri Lankan waters are well aware that they are poaching.
Rahul Muralidharan, a PhD candidate at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment in Bengaluru said the fish resources on the Indian side of the boundary have been decimated already. “Instead of blaming Sri Lanka for arresting Tamil Nadu’s fishers and impounding their boats or demanding the IMBL be redrawn, we need to ask what the State of Tamil Nadu has done to manage its fisheries resources,” Muralidharan asked. The spirit of bonhomie seen at recent high-level talks during the visits of Foreign Secretary and the Indian Army Commander, could be extended to the next round of talks between India and Sri Lanka on the question of illegal fishing. As High Commissioner Moragoda said, “the Foreign Secretary’s visit has helped a lot. The senior officials on the Indian side understand us warts and all, and that helps.” “We have the basis now to start building through the transactions on to a strategic relationship.” A visit by 100 Buddhist monks and a delegation led by Sports Minister Namal Rajapaksa to Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh on Vap Poya Day (October 20) to mark the opening of a new international airport there has marked another milestone in people-to-people contacts.
Integrated Country Strategy
Moragoda referred to the Integrated Country Strategy (which this newspaper serialized recently) – a road map for building relations over the next two years, and said the two countries will have to “evolve from a transactional stage to a strategic and then a special relationship”. “The transactional stage is also a trust-building phase because both sides need to learn to do business with each other.” Former Ambassador Vishnu Prakash, posing the question ‘How India can win Sri Lanka back?’ said, “We could step up our people-centric developmental activities while scrupulously staying clear of any interference in Colombo’s domestic affairs. So long as our security interests are not disturbed, we need not react to Chinese advances, which we cannot prevent in any case without causing a lot of rancour. Given Beijing’s authoritarian disposition, our friends will realise sooner than later that all that glitters may not be gold.” In the past, Sri Lanka has proposed joint patrolling by the two countries’ coastguards along the IMBL to solve the vexed issue. With the increase in defence and security cooperation between India and Sri Lanka, the two countries could now seriously consider the introduction of joint patrolling in the Palk Strait to prevent illegal fishing and smuggling of narcotics, consumer goods and human trafficking or smuggling.
The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd., 1995–2021.