(COLOMBO) – The Sri Lankan Government has ordered a high-powered committee to look into the festering fishing crisis faced by local fishermen owing to the poaching activities of foreign fishermen mainly from the South Indian State of Tamil Nadu.
The Sectoral Oversight Committee on Alleviating the Impact of the Economic Crisis has instructed the fisheries secretary to consult all relevant parties regarding the prevention of illegal fishing activities in the North and submit a report containing the necessary recommendations to the Parliament at the very earliest.
The fishermen representatives of the north pointed out that the illegal encroachment of the northern coast by Indian fishermen have severely affected their livelihoods.
Moreover, it was disclosed that the damage to marine resources due to fishing using trawling methods by Indian fishermen has not been assessed so far, the Parliamentary Communications Department said in a statement on Wednesday.
Meanwhile some 19 Indian fishermen who were earlier detained by the Sri Lankan Navy for poaching in the country’s territorial waters were repatriated to India on Wednesday, the Indian High Commission in Colombo said.
Taking it to X, the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka said, “Returning home! 19 Indian fishermen have been repatriated from Sri Lanka and are now on their way from Colombo to Chennai.”
This year, the Sri Lankan Navy has so far held 23 Indian trawlers and a hundred and seventy-eight Indian fishermen for allegedly fishing in the island nation’s waters.
Fishermen from both countries are arrested frequently for inadvertently trespassing into each other’s waters. In 2023, the island nation’s Navy arrested 240 Indian fishermen along with 35 trawlers for allegedly poaching in Sri Lankan waters.
This development of releasing the 19 Indian fishermen came amidst an ongoing row over the Katchatheevu island after India’s ruling BJP blamed the Congress Party for ceding the tiny island to Sri Lanka in 1974.
