Tamil Nadu: Protests against Lankan Navy’s arrest of Indian fishermen escalate

Tamil Nadu: Protests against Lankan Navy’s arrest of Indian fishermen escalate

Tamil Nadu: Protests against Lankan Navy’s arrest of Indian fishermen escalate ByK A Shaji Feb 24, 2025 01:35 PM IST Share Via Copy Link Chief minister M K Stalin spoke to external affairs minister S Jaishankar and asked him to convene the India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group on Fisheries for the release of the fishermen and their boats

The crew of 700 mechanised deep-sea trawlers began an indefinite strike at Tamil Nadu’s largest fish landing centre in Rameswaram on Monday in protest against the Sri Lankan Navy’s arrest of 32 fishermen and seizure of fishing vessels a day earlier.

Fishermen protested across the Tamil Nadu coast. (AFP/File)

Sri Lankan Navy arrested the fishermen from Rameswaram and its surroundings on Sunday and seized their five trawlers on charges of poaching and breaking the international maritime boundary along the Palk Straits.

Fishermen organisations held protests across the Tamil Nadu coast on Sunday and Monday. They threatened to go on an indefinite strike if the Union government did not find a lasting solution to the problem.

Chief minister M K Stalin spoke to external affairs minister S Jaishankar and asked him to convene the India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group on Fisheries for the release of the fishermen and their boats. He added the Sri Lankan Navy has since January apprehended 119 fishermen and 16 boats.

Pattali Makkal Katchi leader Anbumani Ramadoss called such recurring incidents an attack on India’s sovereignty and said the working group called the Tamil Nadu fishermen crossing the maritime boundary a humanitarian and livelihood-related issue in October last year.

Rameswaram-based All India Mechanised Boats Fishermen Association chief P Jesuraja, who owns one of the five trawlers seized on Sunday, said 530 Indian fishermen were arrested last year, and 381 trawlers were seized. Jesuraja said this was happening even as President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed the issue should be approached from a humanitarian perspective when the two leaders met in Delhi in December. He said Indian fishermen have no choice but to fish in international waters as the catch is abundant there.

Ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) lawmaker Kanimozhi Karunanidhi said the party was standing with fishing communities risking their lives to eke out a living under the constant threat from the Sri Lankan Navy.

Fishermen’s Coordinating Committee leader R Sagayam said the workers were apprehensive about Sri Lankan authorities’ announcement that they would auction off 67 fishing vessels. He said the silence from the Union government was shocking when fishermen from Tamil Nadu were pleading for safe and secure fishing activities along the Palk Straits. “Our right to fish in the Palk Straits has existed since immemorial, and we will not compromise it.”

Last Sunday, the fishers affiliated with the DMK organised a demonstration in Ramanathapuram, condemning the Union government for failing to prevent the arrests.

Kanimozhi reminded the Union government that direct talks between a local fishermen delegation and those from the Northern Province of Sri Lanka would resolve the issue considerably.

N J Bose, a fishermen leader from Rameswaram, said the fishing fields for Tamil fishermen shrank to a mere 12 nautical miles from 52 nautical miles after the international maritime border line was demarcated following the Katchatheevu agreement in 1974. “We used country boats then, but the government asked us to use trawlers. Decades later, Sri Lanka opposes trawlers.”