Sri Lanka’s sea is only for Sri Lankans - EDITORIAL

Only a small number of Sri Lankans might have taken note of the recent reports that around 100 Indian fishermen and over a dozen Indian fishing vessels had been apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy for engaging in bottom trawling activities in the island’s waters during the first eight months of the year.

Since this has been a routine issue that occasionally makes headlines, people of this country tend to ignore it as something that has got nothing to do with them. Yet, it is a serious problem directly and heavily affecting the livelihood of the fishermen in the Northern Province and indirectly having a considerable bearing on the national economy. 

Last year, 36 Indian fishing vessels and 264 Indian fishermen were arrested whereas 30 fishing vessels and 243 Indian fishermen were apprehended by the Navy in 2021 for trespassing the Sri Lankan waters and engaging in illegal methods of fishing.  

We can cite statistics of this plundering of wealth that belongs to the Sri Lankan fishing community valued at billions of rupees by the Indian fishermen for more than five decades.  
There are newspaper reports published in 1960s indicating Indian officials, especially the Indian Navy advising the Tamil Nadu fishermen not to venture into the Sri Lankan waters. 
However, the practice of illegal fishing in the island’s waters in the Bay of Bengal, the Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar has been continuing unabated with the tacit support of the south Indian politicians.

During the armed conflict that the security forces had engaged first with dozens of Tamil militant groups and later exclusively with the LTTE, this daylight robbery of Sri Lankan maritime resources by the South Indian fishermen became one of their undeclared exclusive rights, or what is called in legal terms “Adverse Possession” 
Adverse Possession means a trespasser or squatter who occupies another person’s property illegally being granted title for that property on that grounds of long time occupation of it. 

This situation arose as various restrictions based on timing and locality were imposed on the Sri Lankan fishermen by the security forces during the war preventing them from fishing only in the seas close to the shore, for years. 
In the later year of the war, Indians started to use bottom trawling as well, draining the marine resources in the Sri Lankan waters. Bottom trawling involves the usage of big iron bolts connected to chains and dragging of heavy nets over the seafloor to harvest fish and other marine species, which destroys precious coral reefs and other aquatic resources. 

Although India has granted more than $3 billion financial assistance to Sri Lanka last year, the President of the Northern Province Fisheries Association, M. V. Subramanium had told two years ago that Indian fishing vessels illegally fishing in Sri Lankan waters pillage around Rs. 900 billion worth of valuable marine resources in the northern seas of Sri Lanka annually.  

This is like the almsgiver robbing the same alms he has given to the poor. 
Negotiations have been held to resolve this matter at various levels – government to government, between Fishing Associations of both countries and both authorities and fishermen representatives – but to no avail. 
In an interview with Tamil Nadu’s Thanthi TV in 2015, the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe even justified the right of the Sri Lankan Navy to shoot the poachers. 

“If someone tries to break into my house, I can shoot. If he gets killed, law allows me to do that,” he stated. 
The 1976 agreement between Sri Lanka and India which determined the Maritime Boundary of the two countries clearly says with reciprocal terms that “The fishing vessels and fishermen of India shall not engage in fishing in the historic waters, the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone of Sri Lanka.” 

Yet, since lately, Indian authorities and fishermen have been arguing that Tamil Nadu fishermen’s access to Sri Lankan waters must be accepted on humanitarian grounds. It is ironic; this is Sri Lanka’s sea; these are our marine resources.