The demise of a Sri Lankan navy sailor has introduced into sharp focus a long-running fisheries dispute between India and Sri Lanka. File | Picture credit score: L. Balachandar
Ministry of Overseas Affairs of Sri LankaHe lately summoned an official from the Indian Excessive Fee in Colombo and expressed concern over the demise of a sailor who was a part of a patrol unit that seized an Indian fishing boat.
A senior official from the Ministry of Exterior Affairs has handed over a proper be aware to the Indian diplomat concerning the persistence of unlawful, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, particularly the underside trawling technique, and âindiscriminate poaching by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters,â in accordance with a report within the Colombo-based newspaper sunday time newspaper.
Learn additionally: Web damages: In regards to the fishing dispute, India and Sri Lanka
An official supply stated The Hindu that the Indian official was summoned to the Ministry on Friday.
âIt was primarily to convey concern from the Sri Lankan facet,â the supply stated, requesting anonymity.
The difficulty was additionally raised in New Delhi when Sri Lankan Excessive Commissioner to India Kshenuka Senewiratne known as on Exterior Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on June 25.
Within the early hours of the identical day, a Sri Lankan Navy sailor was killed in an operation focusing on Indian fishermen and their fishing boat off Kankesanthurai on the Jaffna peninsula within the island nationâs Northern Province. Nevertheless, not one of the officers talked about discussing this of their updates on social media platform âXâ shortly after the assembly.
In a press launch final week, the Sri Lankan Navy blamed the deadly mid-sea incident on âaggressive manoeuvres by an Indian fishing vesselâ that âresistedâ detention by the patrol unit.
As many as 10 Indian fishermen – seven from Nagapattinam, one from Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu and two others from Andhra Pradesh – have been arrested on expenses of unlawful fishing. His fishing boat was confiscated.
Lengthy-standing battle
This occasion has as soon as once more highlighted the long-standing fishing battle within the Palk Strait. Regardless of the incessant demand from northern Sri Lankan fishermen that their Indian counterparts cease utilizing the harmful trawling technique, Indian fishermen have continued this observe for years.
Additionally learn:The Palk Bay fisheries battle: a narrative of competing livelihoods and depleted catches
In the meantime, fishermen in northern Sri Lanka have blamed the Sri Lankan and Indian governments for failing to discover a lasting resolution to the persistent drawback, which has put their livelihoods beneath extreme stress.
Additionally they demand the resumption of talks between representatives of fishermen’s organizations from either side.
âEach governments have a accountability to implement the settlement reached by either side in 2016, when the international ministers of each nations met in Delhi. They agreed to finish the observe of backside trawling on the earliest. As an alternative of shifting ahead with that effort, some actors try to politicise this difficulty,â stated Annalingam Annarasa, who heads a Jaffna-based fisheries cooperative society.
Additionally Learn: Additionally Learn: Resuming talks with Tamil Nadu counterparts essential, say northern Sri Lanka fishing neighborhood leaders
Following the 2016 assembly and bilateral settlement, India and Sri Lanka fashioned a joint working group to resolve the problem of Indian fishermen continuously going through arrests for unlawful fishing in Sri Lankan territorial waters. The Group final met in 2022.
