Not a week goes by without Indian fishermen, mostly from Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, being arrested by personnel of the Sri Lankan Navy and arraigned before courts in northern Sri Lanka. Events follow a pattern with the Tamil Nadu and Puducherry chief ministers writing to the external affairs minister urging him to get the fishermen and their boats released. Not often in the last few years has the Sri Lankan Navy fired on fishermen crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line and fishing in Lankan waters closer to Katchatheevu, the island that was gifted to Sri Lanka by India when Mrs Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister.Events around the Indian Republic Day with arrests of fishermen and seizure of boats escalated to Navy personnel opening fire on fishermen on January 28. New Delhi’s view of the festering problem may vary from that held in Fort St George in Chennai, but the perennial problem of arrests by the Sri Lankan Navy and, occasionally, by the Pakistan Navy off the coast of Gujarat, has never had a satisfactory solution. True, Indian fishermen are generally harassed only when they cross the IMBL and fish in foreign waters where the catch may be better simply because those waters have not been overfished.This overreaction of the Lankan Navy, charging TN and Pondy fishermen of acting aggressively, is a bigger embarrassment presently after India and Sri Lanka reset their ties post-Sri Lankan economic crisis and scaled them up further after the new government took office. While emotions have tended to run high over the issue, particularly with the gifting of Katchatheevu in Palk Strait, solutions lie in gearing up our fishermen to go deep sea fishing rather than cross the IMBL while refusing to give up the practice of bottom trawling that is deleterious to marine life. The issue may be complicated, but Sri Lanka must train its Navy to respect the fishermen’s hazardous livelihood and not indulge in trigger happy confrontations. On its part, India can do a far better job of funding its fishermen with navigation aids and better Coast Guard support in helping to keep them within the IMBL. Deep sea fishing in international waters would be the ultimate solution. That would take money and political will.
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