Sri Lankan Minister Bimal Rathnayake urges India, Tamil Nadu to help protect livelihoods of northern Sri Lankan fishermen 

Sri Lankan Minister urges India and Tamil Nadu to stop illegal fishing in Sri Lankan waters to protect livelihoods.

“The Governments of India and Tamil Nadu must take decisive action against illegal fishing in Sri Lankan waters to ensure that the livelihoods of northern Sri Lankan fishermen are protected,” Sri Lankan Minister Bimal Rathnayake told Parliament, as the enduring Palk Bay fisheries conflict came under sharp focus in the island nation.  

Intervening in the House on Wednesday (March 5, 2025), Mr. Rathnayake, who is Minister of Transport, Highways, Ports and Civil Aviation and Leader of the House, said Sri Lanka has greatly appreciated the thoughtful assistance from India and Tamil Nadu during the years of war, by protecting people who fled to India, and the more recent support [during the economic crisis and floods].

“The real help, however, will be to help protect our northern fishermen’s livelihoods by enforcing the law on the Indian side and taking decisive action against illegal fishing,” he said. “The people of the north rely solely on fisheries for a living. I request the Indian Government, as well as the Tamil Nadu Government, to ensure that this main source of livelihood is not snatched away from them,” he said.

‘Please let our fishermen live’

The sensitive bilateral issue is back under the spotlight in the Sri Lanka, after Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) legislator Thurairasa Ravikaran, who represents the Vanni electoral district, recently moved an adjournment motion on the issue, amid the ongoing Budget session. Making a passionate plea to Indian authorities as well as the Sri Lankan Government and Navy on Wednesday (March 5, 2025), he said: “Please let our fishermen live!”

For well more than a decade now, war-affected northern Sri Lankan fishermen have been urging their counterparts in Tamil Nadu to stop using the destructive bottom-trawling method, which has severely depleted their catch, while threatening their fragile livelihoods. In 2024, the Sri Lankan Navy arrested more than 540 Indian fishermen on charges of illegal fishing. This year, more than a 100 Indian fishermen have been arrested in the first two months alone.  However, northern fishermen maintain that several hundred more come to their seas to fish regularly.