SRI LANKA: MOVING AWAY FROM BOTTOMTRAWLING STILL WAY OUT FOR TN

FISHERS? ANALYSIS
Fishing boats on Palk Strait in Tamil Nadu

By
Observer Research Foundation
By N Sathiya Moorthy-SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

The much-publicised first round of the officials-level talks on

resolving the India-Sri Lanka fishing issue has ended up as a non-starter. However, hopes
still cannot be ruled out for a possible, if not early, solution.
Under the evolved and existing circumstances, a solution should mainly involve
governments in India those in Tamil Nadu and at the Centre demonstrating on the
ground, their medium and long-term intent to encourage southern coastal fishers to take
to deep-sea fishing in a big way. In turn, both the Sri Lankan Government and the fishers
in the Tamil-exclusive Northern Province will have to concede that their Indian
counterparts will require reasonable time for effecting that conversion from banned

trawler fishing, to non-interventionist deep-sea fishing, and act accordingly.

For the first-time, the bilateral, official-level talks were headed on either side by
Fisheries Department officials. For historic reasons, linked to the arrest-and-release of
TN fishers by Sri Lanka, and later on substantive issues relating to the IMBL, the Ministry
of External Affairs (MEA) had remained the nodal-point for such negotiations in both
countries. It remained thus even when both countries had acknowledged it to be a
livelihood issue and also began working on a MoU for bilateral cooperation in fisheries
development in the shared Palk Strait and Gulf of Mannar in particular. There however
exists an India-Sri Lanka Joint Working Group (JWG), also of officials. It met last in
Colombo in January 2012. In the context of the newer officials forum, the JWGs role
may have to be reviewed / redefined.

Without authority?
Formed at the instance of Sri Lankan Fisheries Minister Rajitha Senaratne, the officials
forum (if it could be called so) was aimed at following up on two rounds of fishers
negotiations at Chennai (January) and Colombo (May). With Sri Lanka remaining
obstinate and no progress made at the fishers negotiations, it was unclear from the very
beginning as to what the officials at the Delhi talks could achieve, in the absence of clearcut political directives, particularly in the case of Sri Lanka.
Going by media reports, the Sri Lankan delegation at the Delhi talks on 29 August came
without much authority to decide upon anything. Given the way the Executive
Presidency system has worked in the country for close to four decades, and the way the
political leadership at all levels retain much of the decision-making powers, it could not
have been otherwise. The question thus arises if the national-level ministers in charge of
Fisheries from the two countries should meet early on, and take it up to the level of the
respective Heads of Government, if it has to be that way.

Proof of the pudding

The proof of the pudding is in the eating. There is nothing to show that the deep-sea
conversion project in Tamil Nadu is working to any targets or deadlines after the
incumbent Government of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa announced 25 percent subsidy for

such conversion after returning to power in 2011 and doubled it in Budget-2014. Only
with emerging proof of such conversion may the Sri Lankan Government and its
northern Tamil fishers consider interim concessions with confidence. Apart from
bureaucratic delays down to the last official, the tentative nature of the State
Governments proposal owe to intermittent suggestions for facilitating/funding outright
purchase of deep-sea vessels without conversion. This could involve larger funding than
Rs 1500 crores sought by the Chief Minister in a memorandum personally handed to
Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his assuming office in May.
In the interim, the Sri Lankan Government will need to do more, if its serious about
finding a negotiated settlement. Continuing arrests of Indian fishers without giving the
governments in India, time for smooth transition away from the destructive and banned
practice of bottom-trawling will be counter-productive. Ever since the TN Government
started talking about deep-sea fishing, intermittent arrests of fishers and continuing
detention of boats even when they are freed (almost always at the instance of Sri Lankan
President Mahinda Rajapaksa) have only helped to keep the political and livelihood
issues alive in Tamil Nadu in particular.

Maritime security and EEZ

Customary arguments based on historic waters and traditional rights, as has been cited
by successive governments in Tamil Nadu after the signing of the IMBL Pacts of 1974
and 1976, post-UNCLOS (UN Convention on the Laws of the Seas), has often unnerved
Sri Lanka. Apart from security concerns linked to apprehensions of LTTEs Sea Tigers
revival, seeking to undo the Kachchativu Pact, if the 1974 agreement could be called so,
also challenges Sri Lankas sovereignty, in the nations perspective. The creation first, and
the continuing negotiations now on the expansion of EEZ for nations have added a new
dimension to the continuing Tamil Nadu discourse on historic waters, traditional rights,
and also the Katchchativu issue.
Even without Sea Tigers revival in one form or the other and where the High Security
Zones (HSZ) remain years after the war, both Sri Lanka and India cannot ignore post26/11 threats of maritime terrorism. For India, cooperating with the southern Sri Lankan
island-neighbour on maritime and maritime security issues against non-State and nonterritorial State players is thus not an option. It is a necessity as much for the
Government of Tamil Nadu as for the Government of India. The more recent Al-Qaeda

threat of forming an India branch, Colombo-based Pakistani ISI attempts at anti-India

terrorism and the arrest of the latters operatives in Tamil Nadu over the past weeks and
months all indicative of the need.

New signals
There may be still light at the end of the tunnel, some new signals, on the fishing issue.
Terrorism-threats of every kind underscores the need for monitored fishing in nearby
waters, if it could be helped or encouraging fishers to go deep sea. Requirements of
fishing-ban laws in Sri Lanka, and the proven destruction of marine resources and the
anxieties of the Tamil fishers of Sri Lankas Northern Province all are indicative of the
livelihood issue taking a tail-spin.
Sri Lanka can take heart that the two Benches of the Madras High Court and the
Supreme Court of India have not taken kindly to TN fishers crossing the IMBL. Recently,
the Supreme Court observed that the fishers problem and the Katchchativu issue were
bilateral in nature, to be taken up at the political and diplomatic levels and not through
courts. At the Supreme Court, the Government of India lawyer had earlier submitted
that there was no way of taking back Katchchativu without going to war. The court
practically ruled out that option, too.
It still can cut both ways. The Centre might want to take heart in the courts
observations. But the TN Government, polity and fishers might pressure the
Government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi even more for sending out a firm, clear
and unequivocal message to Sri Lanka on fishers arrests. That the Chief Ministers
missive came after the Supreme Courts observations for resolving the issue through
political and diplomatic ways should not be lost sight of, either.
At the same time, Tamil Nadus fishers, polity and Government will have to consider the
much-feared and equally-delayed signals from their fisher-brethren in Sri Lankas Tamilmajority Northern Province. For the second time in as many months, the Ilankai
Tamizharasu Katchi (ITAK, better known as Federal Party) has called for stopping
Indian trawler-fishing in their waters. That they touched upon poaching by southern
Sinhala fishers in their traditional waters does not help matters for TN counterparts. It
was one of the 15 points in the political resolution passed at the 15th national
conference of the ITAK, the dominant partner in the 10-month-old elected, coalition

TNA Government of Chief Minister, Justice C V Wigneswaran.

Apart from the Governments of Sri Lanka, and those concerned in India, the ITAK
resolution wanted the NPC administration (with a Fisheries Minister to call its own)
involved in negotiations, and an early solution found to end the loss of fishing, fish and
fisheries resources of the Northern Tamil fishers. Earlier and outside of the ITAK, M K
Shivajilingam, the maverick TNA member of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC), who
is a persona non grata in India for other reasons, had wanted trawling rights for northern
fishers, as Indian counterparts were anyway adopting the banned practice in their
waters, without any space or let-up!
(The writer is a Senior Research Fellow at Observer Research Foundation,
Chennai Chapter).
Posted by Thavam