Bodies of recovered fishermen poachers handed over to Indian coastguard

Northern Provincial GDP declines 1.4% due to Indian poaching

Bodies of four fishermen aboard the Indian fishing trawler that sank when they were poaching on Sri Lankan territorial waters were handed over to the Indian Coast Guard at the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) around 10.00 a.m. on Saturday.

The Navy launched a Search and Rescue (SAR) operation to find the missing Indian poachers after their vessel sank in Sri Lankan waters on 18 January 2021 following a mid-sea collision with a Navy vessel. The SAR operation led to the recovery of four corpses. At the autopsy, it was revealed that three corpses were of Indian nationals and the remaining one was of a person with Sri Lankan origin, who lived in India.

Subsequent to the legal proceedings initiated by the Magistrate Court of Mallakam, the corpses were formally handed over to the Indian Consulate General Office in Jaffna. The Consulate requested the Navy to hand over the corpses to India. The bodies were transported by a Sri Lanka Coast Guard craft and handed over to the Indian Coast Guard Ship (ICGS) Atulya at the IMBL.

All these measures were carried out adhering to strict safety and health guidelines stipulated by health authorities due to COVID-19 concerns.

The Indian boat sank in Sri Lankan waters about eight nautical miles within the IMBL northwest of Delft Island last week. At the time of the incident over 50 Indian fishing trawlers were poaching in Sri Lankan waters. One of the vessels collided with a Navy ship while attempting to escape.

The Navy said: “The collision also caused damages to the SLN Fast Attack Craft, which was subsequently brought to Kankesanthurai harbour safely for repair work.”

Researcher Oscar Amarasinghe has identified that between 2006 to 2008 Sri Lanka has lost around US$ 41 million or LKR 5,293 million per annum due to Indians illegally fishing in Sri Lankan waters. The annual direct monetary loss to each member of the fishing households in the Northern Province is LKR 28,848. Furthermore, the annual direct monetary loss due to poaching (LKR 5,293 million) was equivalent to 1.4 percent of the Northern Provincial Gross Domestic Product in 2015, which was LKR 390,689 million.