The State government on Monday told the Madras High Court that incidents of alleged firing and attack on Indian fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy had reduced drastically since the end of the civil war in the island nation in 2009. It expressed its resoluteness to retrieve Katchatheevu and restore the right to fish in traditional waters.
In a counter affidavit filed before the second Division Bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and R. Suresh Kumar, Director of Fisheries G.S. Sameeran said 67 incidents of shooting and attack by the SL Navy were reported in the last two decades, leading to the death of 26 Indian fishermen. “Due to steps taken by the State and Central governments, the incidents of shooting and attack have considerably reduced in the last decade. Only five such incidents have been reported, in which two fishermen died and four were injured,” the counter filed in response to a PIL petition filed by Fishermen Care, an NGO, read.
The petitioner organisation had filed the case in 2018, seeking financial and other forms of assistance to the fishermen who had suffered due to arrests and seizure of their boats by the SL Navy on charges of having intentionally crossed the International Maritime Boundary Line. The counter affidavit, served on petitioner’s counsel L.P. Maurya, said around 6,000 mechanised fishing boats and 9,000 traditional craft were engaged in fishing in the Palk Bay area. Over 60,000 members of fishermen families were directly dependent on these boats for eking out a living and many others indirectly. Claiming that a permanent solution to the problem of cross-border fishing could be found if Katchatheevu, ceded to Sri Lanka by the Centre, is retrieved and included in the confines of Indian waters, the Director of Fisheries said a case filed in this regard by the State government in 2008 was pending in Supreme Court.
