Even before Katchatheevu was ceded, Sri Lanka had periodically arrested Tamil Nadu fishers 

Tamil Nadu Governor blames 1974 cession of Katchatheevu for ongoing issues faced by Indian fishermen in Sri Lanka.

Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi, during the recent protests in Rameswaram against the continuing arrest of fishermen by Sri Lanka, blamed the 1974 cession of Katchatheevu by India to Sri Lanka for the woes of the community. After receiving representations from the fishermen, he said the governments of the day had committed a “grave sin” by taking away the traditional fishing rights of Indian fishermen in the waters around the islet. “Since then, our fishing community has been suffering continuously. They are being arrested by the Sri Lankan government and their boats are being confiscated,” he said. However, a perusal of reports from The Hindu Archives shows that even before the islet was ceded to Sri Lanka, fishermen were arrested periodically by the Sri Lankan Navy on the charge of poaching. As early as 1960, Tamil Nadu’s fishermen were subjected to attacks by the island nation (then Ceylon). A Press Trust of India (PTI) report published in The Hindu edition dated May 7 that year said, “Ceylon’s Ministry of External Affairs is investigating certain complaints of recent clashes between Ceylon Navy patrols and Indian fishermen in the northern waters of the Island, the evening newspaper The Times of Ceylon reported today.”

“In a front page feature, the paper highlighted the account of a recent clash, which it claimed had been published by a Madras newspaper, and said there had been a series of incidents of that nature in the past weeks.

According to the paper, the latest clash was on Kachcha-Tivu, where Ceylon Service personnel were reported to have threatened to shoot a party of Indian fishermen. The Servicemen claimed the Island belonged to Ceylon,” the report said.

According to the report, “When a member of the fishing party said it [the islet] was India’s, he was threatened at the point of a gun, beaten up and subjected to much cruelty. The island whose ownership had been in dispute lies 11-1/2 miles from Pamban on the south coast of India. It is equidistant from Delft, an island off the northern coast of Ceylon. It is half-a-mile long and half-a-mile wide. Barren and uninhabited, the island was used for bombing practice by the Royal Air Force during the last war. Indian High Commission sources in Colombo declined to comment on the report beyond saying that they were aware of certain incidents that had taken place.”

Two years before India ceded Katchatheevu, a group of fishermen, who had set sail from Rameswaram in launches, were reported missing and believed to have landed in Ceylon. The State Fisheries Department then contacted the Indian High Commission in Ceylon for help in the release of the fishermen who were believed to have strayed into the waters of that country. “Generally, it is stated, when fishing boats stray into Ceylon waters due to failure of the engine, the fishermen are arrested by the Naval police but released after due enquiry,” said a report in The Hindu dated July 28, 1972. A Madurai-datelined PTI report said the Ceylonese Army had seized six Indian fishing launches with 36 men aboard and detained them at Talaimannar. “The fishing launches, based at Rameswaram, went out for fishing on July 25. Earlier, on July 20, the Ceylonese took into custody 12 fishermen and their canoe, and took them to Talaimannar... No indication is however available as to the reason for the Ceylon authorities impounding these fishing vessels and taking the fishermen into custody,” it said.

A few day later, all 48 fishermen were released and they reached Rameswaram. Their launches were also released. “No reason for the detention was available, although it is believed that the fishermen might have strayed into the territorial waters of Sri Lanka,” a July 29, 1972 report said. Again in September 1973, 61 fishermen from Dhanushkodi on four country boats were detained by the Sri Lanka naval patrol at Talaimannar. They were subsequently released.

A few years after Independence, there was a different kind of crackdown on fishermen of Indian origin staying in fishing habitation in Ceylon. The island nation wanted to deport them. In July 1953, C.C. Desai, the Indian High Commissioner, had urged Ceylon not to deport the fishermen. Ceylon agreed not to put into immediate effect its declared intention to summarily deport 1,100 fishermen of Indian origin; it decided to review their cases individually. “But in the case of the other 600, four hundred have already been bundled out and deportation orders have been issued in respect of the balance. As regards the deportation orders already issued but not yet executed, the Ceylon Government is understood to have told Mr. Desai that they could not stay their execution. The Indian Government is expected to step in swiftly and instruct its Emigration Officer at Mandapam not to accept deportees from Ceylon unless they are in possession of travel documents issued by the High Commission to indicate that the deportees are Indian nationals or proved to the satisfaction of that officer that they are illicit immigrants,” said a report in The Hindu dated July 19, 1953.