SL Navy detains 11 TN fishermen, 3 boats

The fishers had set sail into the sea for fishing on Saturday morning.Tamil Nadu fisheries officials told newsmen here that the incarcerated fishers hailed from Kottaipattinam and Jegadapattinam fishing hamlets in Pudukottaidistrict.

They were identified as V Chinnapandi, C Manikandan, P Anthony, S Mariyappan, M Sakthibalan, M Sivalingam, R Rajaguru and T Krishnamoorthy, hailed from Jegadapattinam and T Dhanapal, S Mariyappan and K Muthukumar, nativeof Kottaipattinam.

During a special operation carried out by the Sri Lanka Navy in order to prevent illegal fishing and the various smuggling attempts, all the 11 Indian fishermen, who had entered the seas North of Analathivu in Lankan waters and engaged in illegal fishing on three fishing trawlers, were taken into custody.

The apprehended fishermen and the trawlers were taken to Sri Lanka Naval Station (SLNS) Elara in Northern Naval Command for interrogation.After a medical check-up, they were handed over to the Assistant Director of Fisheries, Jaffna, through the Department of Coastal Conservation on Sunday for further legal action.This is the second instance of arrest of Indian fishermen by Sri Lanka Navy sofar this year.

On January 19, they had arrested four fishermen hailed from Jegadapattinam village and confiscated their mechanized fishing boat for cross border fishing.

The Sri Lanka Navy said that over the months, the number of Indian fishing boats poaching in the Sri Lankan waters has come down due to continuoussurveillance.