It is up to India to settle the issue of poaching in Sri Lankan waters

By Hiran W. Jayewardene

Kachchativu island when I visited it in 1974 was an uninhabited and desolate place occasionally visited by fishermen to dry their nets. A small Catholic shrine stood there for protection of fishers from storms and the sea.

The Lankan newspaper in late 1960s published a photograph of what was described as a group of pilgrims from India visiting the island. Serious fishing started when Indian fishermen depleted stocks on their side of the boundary and switched to more lucrative poaching of prawns, trawling on the Sri Lankan side on the muddy bottom of the basin South of Kachchativu.

When arrested by the SLN, Indian authorities exerted undue diplomatic and political pressure for the release of poachers and boats which are owned by influential people on Indian side. The Sri Lanka Navy effectively reduced poaching to zero but Indian political counter pressure even saw the overnight removal of the SLN commander then responsible for countering illegal fishing.

Bottom trawling is abhorred by environmental conservationists worldwide. But this bullying has been going on for decades against UN norms and international scientific study. Australian British and Norwegian scientists who have experience in this area should be brought together to work on this problem that has been disgracefully prolonged.

One of the longest running international fish poaching disputes, the Cod War between the UK and Iceland was amicably resolved in the 1970s. Given the continuing destruction by bottom trawling the two governments (Indian and Sri Lankan) should call for an IMMEDIATE MORATORIUM to allow recovery of the ecosystem and decide on management measures for Sri Lankan fishermen to regain their right to the fishery in their own historic internal waters with total exclusion of the poachers. The area is a sensitive ecosystem which is home to the endangered dugong and other bottom dwellers.

There is an urgent need for a bilateral accord on trans-boundary ecosystem of management or a Palk Bay Sanctuary. The controversial Indo Lanka bridge issue needs to examined on both sides by experts. Sri Lanka is too small to fight subordinate Indian elements. It is for the Central Government of India to ensure an amicable, fair and transparent solution.

(The writer was Ambassador and Head of Sri Lanka delegation to UN Conference on the Law of the Sea)