- Wednesday, April 24, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
SRI LANKA’S fishermen on Sunday (17) staged a unique protest demanding their country’s government to block India trawlers from poaching in the island-nation’s northern waters rich in prawns.
They launched a flotilla of boats carrying black flags and opposition legislators who travelled 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Mullaittivu, a northeastern fishing town to Point Pedro, the island’s northernmost tip.
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“We have come in boats to protest bottom trawling by Indian fishermen,” MA Sumanthiran, a legislator for the main Tamil opposition party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), told reporters in Point Pedro, AFP reported.
Bottom trawling involves dragging heavy nets across the sea floor to catch large quantities of fish. It causes severe damage to the marine ecosystem and has been banned in Sri Lankan waters since 2017.
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The TNA said it was protesting against Colombo’s failure to stop poaching by Indians and protect the local fishing communities that are fighting poverty.
The Sri Lankan government did not immediately respond to the matter, AFP added.
India and Sri Lanka are separated by the narrow Palk Strait, a rich fishing ground which is known for jumbo prawns, and their poaching has caused tensions between the two maritime neighbours.
Indian fishermen had a free run in the area during much of the island-nation’s decades-long Tamil separatist war that concluded in 2009 since their Sri Lankan counterparts were not allowed to venture out much then.
But after fishermen from the island started venturing out again, tensions between the two countries have increased.
According to local fishermen in Sri Lanka, poaching hasn’t seen a pause despite Colombo detaining large numbers of Indian fishermen regularly and seizing their boats, AFP added.
An Indian fisherman was even allegedly killed by the Lankan forces in March 2017.
