Resolving the vexatious fishing dispute Premium

Talks between the fishermen of India and Sri Lanka could pave the way for an agreement to put an end to bottom trawling

Last week, the Leader of the House in the Sri Lankan Parliament, Bimal Rathnayake, called upon the Indian and Tamil Nadu governments to take “decisive action” against “ illegal fishing in Sri Lankan waters”. Mr. Rathnayake, also the Transport and Highways Minister, is a key figure in the ruling Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) government.

While acknowledging the support of India in general, and Tamil Nadu in particular, to his country during the civil war, the economic crisis, and floods, Mr. Rathnayake made it clear that “the real help” would be to help protect the livelihood of Tamil-speaking fishermen of the Northern Province, who have been “victims of illegal fishing”.

In recent years, this is the first time that a high-ranking dignitary from Sri Lanka has spoken so strongly about the festering Palk Bay fisheries dispute, which should have been resolved long ago. In March 2015, the then Sri Lankan Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, defended the response of the Sri Lanka Navy to Indian fishermen and termed it as legitimate to “shoot fishermen” trespassing into Sri Lankan waters.

So far, neither the External Affairs Ministry nor the Tamil Nadu government’s representative has reacted to Mr. Rathnayake’s statement. This is not surprising; it is an open secret that fishermen from the districts of Ramanathapuram, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, and Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, and from the Karaikal district of the Union Territory of Puducherry, have been crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line for fishing, in pursuit of their livelihoods. More than illegal fishing, fisherfolk of the Northern Province have been complaining about bottom trawling by Indian fishermen. Widely condemned for its destructive impact on marine ecosystems, bottom trawling is responsible for nearly half of all discarded fish and marine life globally and disrupts the breeding cycle. The asymmetric economic relationship between the Tamil Nadu fishing community, which is wealthier, and the Sri Lankan fisherfolk from the Northern Province, which is recovering from the aftermath of the civil war, complicates the situation. The north Sri Lankan fishermen, who depend on conventional forms of fishing, are seeking a sustainable solution to protect their waters from over-exploitation.

At the same time, the Indian fishermen are constrained by many factors. There is a small area available for fishing within Indian waters, which is marked by rocks and coral reefs. The Tamil Nadu Marine Fishing Regulation Act, 1983, restricts fishing activities along the Tamil Nadu coastline. Unlike the current 24-hour voyages in the Palk Bay region, the duration for deep-sea fishing, which has long been suggested as an alternative to the fisherfolk, takes around three weeks and naturally involves higher costs of operation and labour. Moreover, diversification requires fishermen to change their orientation, which, in a traditional occupation, can only happen in a gradual manner. It is for these and other reasons that the joint scheme executed by the Union and State governments for deep-sea fishing since July 2017 has come as a cropper.

Needless to say, the governments of India and Tamil Nadu should do more to wean away fishermen from the pernicious practice of bottom trawling, such as by promoting seaweed cultivation, open sea cage cultivation, and sea/ocean ranching. The least the Union government can do is to merge the ₹1,600-crore Palk Bay deep-sea fishing scheme with the ₹20,050-crore Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana. This will help fishermen participate more in deep-sea fishing, given the higher unit cost allowed for deep-sea fishing vessels.

But Mr. Rathnayake must be aware that given the complexity of the problem, it is not so easy for any government to bring about such a transition swiftly, let alone seamlessly. What he did not address was his government’s attitude towards facilitating talks between the fishermen of the two countries. Both the Indian and Tamil Nadu governments have favoured the resumption of talks between fishermen; these were last held in New Delhi in November 2016. At the last Joint Working Group meeting in Colombo in October last year, the Indian team raised the demand for talks. Even a delegation of fishermen from the Northern Province, who recently met officials of the Indian Consulate General in Jaffna, expressed its willingness to resume discussions with their counterparts on the other side of the Palk Bay. But surprisingly, the NPP government has been silent on this matter. Nothing much can be read into its attitude since it has not even completed six months in office.