Sri Lankan Navy arrests 25 country boat fishermen from Tamil Nadu

MADURAI: The Sri Lankan Navy arrested 25 Indian fishermen and seized their four country boats allegedly for indulging in unlawful fishing activities in their territorial waters on Monday. Condemning the arrests by the Sri Lankan Navy on grounds of cross border fishing, many fisher folks staged a protest walking down to shallow waters off Pamban Island in Ramanathapuram on Monday.

The arrested fishermen, who belong to Pamban, Thangachimadam and Nambuthalai, set out to sea on Sunday, were apprehended by the Lankan Navy early on Monday.

With grief on their faces and tears in their eyes, the aggrieved fisher folks took to the road near Pamban bus stand and pleaded for the release of those 25 TN fishermen from Sri Lanka soon.

SP Rayappan, president, District Country Boats Fishermen Welfare Association, Pamban, said it’s a rare phenomenon that the fishermen, who relied on country boats, were arrested. After a long gap, a country boat off Pamban was detained by the Lankan Navy last year and quick intervention of Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman ensured the of fishermen and the boat immediately. Similarly, he sought the intervention of state and central government authorities to help release the fishermen and their boats from Sri Lanka at the earliest.

Leaders of fishermen associations in Rameswaram alleged that the Sri Lankan naval personnel had come in, two nautical miles into the Indian waters along the IMBL and made the arrest.

Only a few country boat fishermen off Pamban were apprehended by the Sri Lankan Navy that too years before 2014. Just about six to ten country boats could have remained detained in the custody of Sri Lanka, so far. For a long time now, the country boat fishermen have been engaged in sustainable and eco-friendly fishing by gill nets, he said.