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The decades-old Palk Bay fisheries conflict has been impacting poor, daily-wage fishermen in Tamil Nadu and war-affected districts in northern Sri Lanka. File.
| Photo Credit: Meera Srinivasan
Sri Lanka will continue to arrest Indian fishermen and seize their boats as long as they continue trespassing into the island’s territorial waters, authorities have warned, categorically stating that there is “no room for leniency”.
Addressing in a media conference in Colombo on Tuesday (July 1, 2025), Sri Lanka’s Minister of Fisheries Ramalingam Chandrasekar said illegal fishing by Indian fishermen — using the destructive bottom-trawling method that virtually scrapes through the ocean bed — had seriously impacted the livelihoods of Sri Lanka’s northern fishermen. “We are taking up this issue with the Indian side as well,” he said, adding that instances of Indian fishermen poaching in Sri Lankan waters, which had reduced in the past couple of months, was on the rise again.
The Minister was referring to the annual, two-month ban observed in Tamil Nadu. Imposed this year from April 15 to June 14, 2025, the annual ban is followed with the aim of boosting marine production in the overfished Palk Strait.
Soon after the ban ended two weeks ago, Tamil Nadu fishermen returned to fish in the narrow strait. At least 19 fishermen have been arrested by the Sri Lankan Navy since, including seven apprehended in the early hours June 30, 2025, north of Mannar. “The seized boats are detained at the Myliddy harbour [near Jaffna],” the Minister said, vowing legal action against the fishermen and the vessels.
In addition to taking up the issue diplomatically with India, the Sri Lankan government has also allocated additional resources to the Sri Lankan Navy to arrest fishermen found engaging in illegal fishing activity, Mr. Chandrasekar said.
The decades-old Palk Bay fisheries conflict has been impacting poor, daily-wage fishermen in Tamil Nadu and war-affected districts in northern Sri Lanka. In a significant acknowledgement of the underlying problem, the governments of India and Sri Lanka in 2016 set up a ‘Joint Working Group’ that, agreeing to a series of steps including expediting the transition towards ending the practice of bottom trawling “at the earliest”. Nearly a decade later, there is no solution at sight, even as Tamil Nadu fishermen continue using the harmful method, which is banned in Sri Lanka, that too in the territorial waters of the island nation.
“Even when the ban was on, incomes of our fishermen had dropped this season owing to rains and strong winds. Fisherfolk are struggling amid the high living costs in our country,” said K. Rajachandran, who leads a federation of fisher groups in Karainagar, a fishing hamlet located some 20 km northwest of Jaffna town. “We were dreading the return of Indian trawlers that will yet again impact our catch and sales. Now they are back,” he told The Hindu.
Resuming talks between fisher leaders from both sides is the only way out, contends Annalingam Annarasa, Secretary of Kayts Fishermen Cooperative Society. “This is a long-persisting problem, and we don’t seem to be nearing a solution. The government must organise talks soon so we can discuss ways to resolve this,” he said.
Published – July 02, 2025 03:06 pm IST
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Arrests, boat seizures will continue if Indian fishermen trespass, Sri Lanka warns
