The Tamil Nadu Assembly passed a resolution recently urging the Indian Government to ‘retrieve’ Katchatheevu Island from Sri Lanka. However, with Sri Lanka maintaining ownership of the contested island, officials are attempting to resolve the fisheries dispute centring it.
The resolution states that the “retrieval of Katchatheevu Island is the only permanent solution to protect the traditional fishing of Tamil Nadu fishermen”. It further states that “to mitigate the sufferings faced” by the fishermen at the hands of the Sri Lanka Navy, obtaining Katchatheevu Island is the only permanent solution.
“Considering the above, this august House unanimously urges the Union Government to immediately review the Indo-Sri Lankan agreement and take all steps to retrieve Katchatheevu Island,” the statement of the resolution read.
Yet, illegal bottom trawling remains one of the biggest challenges faced by Sri Lankan fishermen, who, with their smaller boats and a reluctance to engage in bottom trawling due to its severe environmental harm, are no match for Indian bottom trawlers. Last year, the Sri Lanka Navy said that over 500 bottom trawlers had made their way across the maritime boundary from India at least thrice a week.
Sri Lanka Navy Spokesperson Commander Buddika Sampath said this pattern remained unchanged this year, adding that they had detained 21 trawlers and 159 Indian fishermen who had illegally crossed the maritime boundary.
Joint Working Group
Sri Lanka and India hold joint discussions annually through a Joint Working Group (JWG) to prevent illegal fishing activities on Sri Lankan waters.
Although the JWG did not meet for two years after 2022, it was convened in October last year where both sides agreed that the highest priority should be given to address the various issues faced by fishermen in a humanitarian manner as they pertain to livelihood concerns on both sides.
Fisheries Ministry Secretary Sampath Manthrinayake said that following the sixth meeting of the JWG in October 2024, Sri Lanka was currently studying India’s plans and proposals. The main issue raised by the Indian side was that of the livelihoods of the Indian fishermen. “After all, they come here for work,” noted Manthrinayake.
According to him, there is a focus on providing alternative livelihoods for them. This is one among a number of proposals to bring a resolution to the issue.
“We are engaged in ongoing discussions. The law alone isn’t enough to stop Indian fishermen from coming here. We do take action if they are caught but we need to go beyond and see if we can stop them from coming. Our fishermen don’t go to that side. From their side, we get thousands of boats. The latter half of this year will see the seventh meeting of the JWG,” said Manthrinayake.
Minister of Fisheries, Aquatic and Ocean Resources Ramalingam Chandrasekar has said that Sri Lanka’s claim to Katchatheevu Island was legitimate.
“This is something Tamil Nadu always says when an election closes in. But our ownership of the island is recognised by international law; it’s recognised by the United Nations,” he said.
Citing Tamil Nadu’s attempts to claim Katchatheevu in 1991, 2013, and 2014, the Minister has said this was not viewed as a new development.
Recurring issue
Last year too, India’s politics saw the discussion of Katchatheevu when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the island on Sri Lanka’s side of the maritime border had been “callously” given away by India’s Congress Party.
On 31 March 2024, Prime Minister Modi posted an article from The Times of India on X about a Right to Information (RTI) reply documenting how Congress Party politician and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi had ceded Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka in 1974.
Amongst other claims, the RTI alleges that former Prime Minister and Gandhi’s father, Jawaharlal Nehru, had dismissed the issue of Katchatheevu, writing: “I would have no hesitation in giving up claims to the island.”
The article further claimed that despite the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) apparent opposition to cede Katchatheevu to Sri Lanka, then Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, also a DMK politician, had known of the decision beforehand and had even concurred to it.
This came days after incumbent Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK politician M.K. Stalin claimed that Katchatheevu had been ceded despite the DMK’s strong opposition while questioning Modi on the steps he had taken to retrieve the island.
A key issue in Tamil Nadu remains the arrests of Tamil Nadu fishermen by Sri Lankan authorities when their bottom trawlers illegally cross the maritime border (demarcated by Katchatheevu) to fish in Sri Lanka’s waters.
Factum Chief International Relations Analyst Uditha Devapriya said that the latest resolution by the Tamil Nadu Government merely demonstrated continuity in the broader long-term trajectory of the India-Sri Lanka relationship.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sees Katchatheevu as a means of scoring points against the Congress Party, while the Tamil Nadu Government sees it as affecting its electorate directly, and hence wants to use it as a bargaining chip in its dealings with the Central Government. I am cynical or realist enough to say that while some resolution on the issue may be on the table, the issue as such will never completely go away. We will have to live with it,” he said.
Modi’s visit
When Modi visited Sri Lanka last week to meet with the new Government, the issue was also discussed. In his statement to the media, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said they had discussed the need for a cooperative approach to providing a sustainable solution to the fisheries issue.
“Recognising the serious environmental damage caused by bottom trawling, a prohibited practice in both our countries, we called for decisive measures to halt this activity and to address illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing,” he said.