(COLOMBO) – Sri Lanka’s Fisheries Minister Douglas Devananda has sought Cabinet approval to establish a ‘Voluntary Sea Guard’ in order to assist the navy in combating foreign poachers mainly Indians in the country’s northern waters.
Devanada was quoted in the local media as saying that the Sea Guards will be made up mainly from the northern fishing community who are the worst affected by the intrusion of poachers in the northern waters also known as the Palk Strait that separates the island-nation from India’s southern coast of Tamil Nadu.
It was not known if the Sea Guards would be provided with weapons and on how the mechanism would work on the high seas where there are hundreds of foreign poaching vessels on a near daily basis.
Devananda also recently refused a request by from his counterpart in Tamil Nadu to allow Indian fishermen to operate at least thrice a week on the Palk Strait saying that the strip of sea was a territorial part of Sri Lankan waters and there could be no compromise whatsoever on the issue.
Devananda also accused the Indian poachers of resorting unregulated fishing methods such as bottom trawling that cleans the sea bed of the smallest of species while destroying the marine life in the process.
The Sri Lankan navy with its limited maritime logistics are finding it hard pressed to combat the poacher menace even though arrests are made frequently.
“We confront the poachers and persuade them to go away but beyond that there is very little that can be done. However we do make an occasional arrest but this has not helped to bring a solution to the festering crisis”, a senior naval official who did not wish to be named said.
From the beginning of this year the Navy has seized 16 Indian poaching trawlers and have arrested 125 fishermen, he said.
“But this is only the tip of the iceberg to the problem and a lasting solution will have to be made through diplomatic and other channels between both Sri Lanka and India”, the official added.
Over the many years, both Colombo and Delhi have met several times for talks aimed at bringing a solution to the protracted issue but with near zero success.
